ITC frozen foods foray on ice

ITC Foods has put its entry into the domestic frozen ready-to-eat foods on the backburner after facing supply chain and distribution hurdles.

The frozen food segment pegged at Rs 300 crore is estimated to grow 20% year-on-year, according to industry estimates.

“Frozen meals business is completely export driven for us as of now. We have not given great thoughts to this domestically due to supply chain constraints,” Chitranjan Dar, CEO, ITC Ltd (food division), said.

The foods division of the $5 billion tobacco and hotels major ITC Ltd had begun the spadework for the launch last August but has now given up attempts to tap the market, at least for now.

The frozen foods business would have been ITC’s sixth segment foray after its successes in the salt and flour market under the Aashirvaad brand, biscuits under the Sunfeast range, confectionery, ready-to-eat foods under the Kitchens of India brand, potato chips and snacks under Bingo label.

“We are not rushing into it as we don’t see a huge opportunity here. The distribution channel can support ready-to-eat foods is not significant,” Dar said.

The company had plans to sell frozen foods under the Kitchen King brand which would have included ready-to-eat meals.

ITC recently began exporting frozen vegetarian foods under the same brand to markets in the US and has presence through 1,000 outlets. Frozen foods manufactured at their Bangalore unit that currently caters to the export market, will also meet domestic needs.