CP Foods to Invest $500 Million in India
INDIA - With an eye to double its turnover to $1.2 billion, Thailand based billion Charoen Pokphand (CP) group’s Indian arm will be investing $500 million in the next five years, writes Jagdish Kumar for ThePoultrySite.com.CP Foods India is also setting up four poultry feed plant in the country and currently has a turnover of $505 million.
The company is looking to spend the investment on setting up farm, feed and quick service restaurant in India.
Speaking on the investment funding, Sanjeev Pant, senior vice president for food business at CP Foods India said that the company will fund 30 per cent of the $500 million and balance will come through bank loans.
With the introduction of quick service restaurant chain, Five Star Chicken in 2012, the company expects the revenue to grow from $14 million to $70 million (Rs 100 crore to Rs 500 crore) and its share in company’s turnover to increase from five per cent to 15 per cent in the next five years.
The company is also planning to introduce fish and shrimp based foods in its restaurant in the next two to three years. The company produces two million birds a week in India and is the third largest poultry producer after Suguna Foods and Venky’s.
The company is also doubling its poultry feed production by setting up five new factories in Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana and West Bengal. At present, there are seven manufacturing facilities in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
The company will also increase its production capacity to 300,000 tonnes a month in the next five years and will be in the position to cater to all regions of the country.
Currently, CP Foods produces 140,000 tonnes of poutry feed. With 260 stores, the company will be doubling the network in the next five years too.
"Our fried chicken is priced much lower than our competitors and our restaurants format targets value conscious customers and with lower overheads on smaller store size and fully integrated supply chain," Pant adds.
As per an estimate, India’s poultry meat consumption is 40 million to 50 million per week and is growing at the rate of 10 per cent annually.