Monday, January 8, 2007

Ruchi Soya bids Rs. 200 crores for Marico brand Sweekar

Ruchi Soya has bid Rs. 200 crores for Marico’s Rs. 100 crore-brand Sweekar. About a week ago, Adani Wilmar has made an offer of about Rs 150 crore for the same brand.

Ruchi is very keen on closing the deal, especially since Sweekar was a well-known brand and fitted in with its larger strategy of transitioning from a trading to a branded business.

The Rs. 5000 crore-Ruchi Soya is a flagship company of the Ruchi Group of Industries and manufactures edible oils, vanaspati, bakery fats and soya foods. Some of its better-known brands include Soyumm (soyabean oil), Ruchi Gold (palmolien oil), Sunrich (sunflower oil), Mandap (mustard oil) and Nutrela (soya chunks and granules).

Marico is focusing on high-value products like Saffola to cash in on the growing health consciousness in the Indian market. That’s why it has chosen to divest Sweekar, but retain Saffola in its portfolio. The cooking oil market is estimated to be around 12 mt a year with annual growth rates pegged at around 15-18%. This includes both branded and unbranded cooking oils. Marico launched Sweekar sunflower refined oil in 1988 and it was one of leading brands in the category.

Other leading players in the edible oil market include Adani Wilmar, Agrotech, Cargill, Marico, ITC and Godrej.

Read The Economic Times article.

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