Kolkata: Britannia Industries has lined up capital expenditure of Rs 500 crore this fiscal and it plans substantial investment in the next two-three years as well, chairman Nusli N Wadia said.
“We are going to spend our maximum ever on capital expenditure,” Wadia said, addressing shareholders during Britannia’s 96th annual general meeting in Kolkata on 4th August.
The Kolkata-headquartered food products company is also set to open a Rs 45-crore state-of-the-art research and development centre in Bengaluru by the end of the year, he said.
Britannia’s growth will be driven by new launches, based on innovation and renovation of its existing product pipeline which will be undertaken by the new R&D centre, he said.
Wadia said the company will put greater focus on food safety and expand its own manufacturing while increasing control on supply chain. “We have learned from the current crisis on food safety and ensured Britannia is not vulnerable to such factors,” he said. “It is more important now, considering there is not much control on raw materials and standards in India like everywhere else in the world.”
Instant noodles are under the scanner in India owing to concerns raised about their safety, forcing several companies to pull out their brands from the market after the government banned Nestle’s Maggi noodles.
Wadia said Britannia has been the number two food brand in India after Maggi. Britannia has also overtaken Parle in biscuits, he said.
“Our new launches are doing extremely very well, which is driving both increase in market share and profit,” he said.
Britannia announced its results for the quarter to June, reporting 67 per cent jump in net profit, compared to the year-ago period, to Rs 190 crore and 13% increase in revenue to Rs 2,018.9 crore.
“This has been one of the best results in the history of Britannia. The revenue CAGR in last two years has been around 12.6 per cent which too has been good considering the weaker market sentiments when other FMCG companies could not grow as much,” said Wadia.
