BSE and NSE listed Specialty chemicals firm Vikas Multicorp Ltd. recently announced that it will enter the food protection and personal hygiene segment of the FMCG industry with an investment of approximately Rs. 100 crore in two years.
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| Mr. Vikas Garg |
The company has “Signed a definitive agreement for acquisition of a portfolio of trademarks, comprising of popular and well established national brands,” Vikas Multicorp said in a regulatory filing.
Without divulging details of the deal, the company said it has acquired trademarks of food packaging and tissue paper brands – Homefoil, Chapati Wrap, Cleanwrap and Mistique.
Vikas Multicorp said with the acquisition of the brand portfolio, the company is initiating the process to identify and acquire an existing patent for manufacturing these items.
“In the interim, alternate arrangements are being made to produce these products through third party contract manufacturing,” the company added.
Vikas Multicorp said the demand of aluminum foil and tissue paper products in India has been growing at a fast pace and is expected to continue to grow in view of present per capita consumption is quite low.
The current aluminum Foil market size in India is about 200,000 MT per annum, in terms of value about Rs. 7,000 crore. These brands have market share of about 6% in the Indian market.
The tissue paper market in India is about Rs. 5,000 crore, out of which the branded tissues market is about Rs. 2000 Crore. The Mistique brand has almost 10% share in the branded tissues category.
These brands have evolved over a period of three decades and are well established names in the domestic market, enjoying very visible and prominent presence in the market at more than 10 Lac retail counters across the nation besides being sold to prestigious institutional customers like Taj group of Hotels, Meridian, Maurya Sheraton, Oberoi, Inter-continental, Hyatt, Marriott and all other big hotels, all the big Hospitals like Apollo, Escorts, Max, Gangaram, Vimhans, Fortis, Moolchand etc., Airlines like Air India, Jet Airways, Jet light, Alliance Air etc., Canteen Stores Department (CSD), and Railways and Airport Authority of India.
In addition, these brands enjoy significant presence in all big retail chains and online platforms. These brands also have recognition in International markets, especially in UK, Middle East and European countries.
Till recent past Indian foil market is crowded with a large number of small converters which buy aluminum from existing players and convert them into foils. Household Aluminum Foils have acquired prominent place in kitchen thus witnessing a growth of about 30-40% in last few years. Ban on plastics is also driving the growth. Studies done in states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Kerala wherein ban on use of plastics was imposed first, sale of Aluminum Foils increased by 50%
Still, India has a very low per capita packaging consumption, which stood at 4.3 kgs, as compared to other developed countries like Germany and Taiwan, where the per capita packaging consumption stood at 42 Kgs and 19 Kgs respectively.
The Company is planning to foray in to complete solutions for Food Protection, and Packaging Personal Hygiene needs of Indian households at one stop shop.
The company is further riding high on the Growing Disposable Income, which is encouraging Indian population to make regular use of hygienic and aesthetic solutions, which were once considered expensive and reserved for special occasions, Rising Working Population, focus on education are also resulting in increasing requirements of packed home cooked food at workplace and personal hygiene products.
“With the changing lifestyle, urbanisation and increasing requirement of food packaging would be the key factors for sustaining the growing demand. Post COVID-19 certain changes are expected in consumer behaviour which also impetus the pace further,” the company added.
