ITC may bring shrimps, frozen foods to your table

Tobacco-to-hotels conglomerate ITC is contemplating getting into frozen foods, including seafoods in a bid to expand its FMCG business.

"We are looking at setting up cold chains which will help us get into products like branded shrimps, fish or even frozen vegetables," ITC chairman Y C Deveshwar said.

In seafoods, ITC is already into shrimp export, but in a commoditised way.

"We are currently exporting shrimps, and are quite large at it. But we could also get into branded packed shrimps too. There are endless opportunities actually. Over the next 15 years, we plan to grow our FMCG business to Rs 1,00,000 crore as announced earlier. That can't be achieved on the strength of existing product line only. We have to enter newer categories," Deveshwar said while inaugurating two consumer goods plants at Howrah in West Bengal and an IT Park at Rajarhat in Bengal.

The consumer food business facilities inaugurated are an 8-lakh square feet facility to make its brands under Yipee and Bingo to be commissioned in January 2017 and another 4-lakh sq ft plant to make Sunfeast biscuits, Bingo snacks and Aashirvaad atta.

The IT park would cover 27 lakh sq ft of build-up space in two IT towers, an IT knowledge centre, two office spaces and also a 140-room hotel and residential accommodation.

The facility, likely to be commissioned in phases beginning 2018, would house about 5,000 people.

The IT park would be the biggest facility for ITC Infotech, a mid-sized IT company.