Here’s another US company entering India betting on its sheer market size and the future it holds for any consumer product. Dole Foods, a US company that specialises in fruits and vegetables and is one of the largest in the world in this space is making an entry into India through a tie-up with the Future Group of Kishore Biyani running the supermarket chain Big Bazaar.
The products from Dole Foods will start appearing in the Indian stores from the end of this year, it has been reported. These will be mostly fruits and fruit derivatives, like juices and jams etc. The products will be preservative-free which is quite important from the health perspective. Dole Foods has estimated that the Indian market for these products would be around $100 billion.
Though the US company expects to setup a couple of units locally, to begin with, its offerings will be imported from some of the South Asian countries.
The company’s global President, Pier Luigi Sigismondi, is reported to have commented that notwithstanding the current slowdown in the Indian economy, Dole Foods looks at a bright future for its products in India and its expansion in the world market is incomplete without being present in the country.
For the record, the Future Group has several such joint ventures already in action; there’s Hain Celestial in the health and wellness space and Mibelle AG, a division of Migros Group - Switzerland, that supplies a range of personal-care products under the brand Swiss Tempelle. Recently, another dairy products brand Fonterra from New Zealand has joined the fray. Hain Celestial is engaged in manufacturing and selling of food products.
The Future Group claims it is trying to enlarge the choice of healthy food brands and products from around the world for the Indian consumers.