Adani Wilmar: Businesses Of Scale

A ₹3,600-crore IPO and focus on the nascent branded staples market with convenience foods have catapulted the Adani Group company into the main league.

- AJITA SHASHIDHAR

AT HIS RATHER MODEST office in the commercial district of Navrangpura in Ahmedabad, Adani Wilmar's MD and CEO, Angshu Mallick, shows a packet of ready-to consume fried rice mix. "All you need to do is microwave it for a couple of minutes and it will be ready to eat. It also has a six-month shelf life," he says excitedly. Though the partly cooked fried rice mix is still a while away from launch, Mallick's portfolio already has an array of convenience foods such as Punjabi khichdi mix, pav bhaji khichdi mix as well as Bengal's famous bhog khichdi mix.

"Unlike earlier, when my mother or wife spent hours making these goodies in the kitchen, my daughter wants to be out of the kitchen in minutes. It is this generation of consumers who don't have time and seek convenience that I want to target. In my pav bhaji khichdi, for instance, I have fortified it with nutrients such as flax seeds and jowar, which are not readily available in one's kitchen," says Mallick.

Mallick intends to do the same to other staples such as dal, besan, and atta in the near future, but this is the tip of the iceberg for the ₹51,879 crore food business of the Adani Group. India's largest edible oil company processes 2.5 million metric tonnes of oil every year (soyabean oil, palm oil, sunflower, mustard, groundnut, cottonseed, and blended oils under the Fortune brand), and is now targeting branded sugar, atta, dal, and besan. Despite a flurry of advertising of atta brands on various media platforms only 11% -12% atta is branded. Among other staples, 95% of sugar and 92% of pulses are sold loose, while only 5% of the total rice (mostly basmati) sold is branded. "This is where India needs a change," points out Mallick.