Heritage Foods to expand grocery retail chain
28 Dec 2006
Hyderabad: The Rs292-crore Hyderabad based dairy company Heritage Foods in which former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu's family own over 30 per cent stake, is planning to expand its fresh food and grocery retail chain, Fresh@, to 100 stores in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai in the next six months.
The company is also looking at the wholesale model — selling to retailers — along the lines of Reliance's proposed Ranger Farms format.
Chandrababu Naidu's constituency, Kuppam district, is expected to be the backbone in terms of sourcing and supply chain of the retail venture. Strategically located near Bangalore and Chennai, the company has identified over 5,000 acres in Kuppam for sourcing fresh produce.
Chandrababu Naidu's wife N Bhuvaneswari holds 21-per cent stake in the company, while son N Lokesh has about 12 per cent in Heritage Foods and plans to invest Rs150 crore in the first phase of its retail plans.
The company has plans to scale up its dairy operations from its Rs18-crore facility in Kuppam and has already set up an R&D centre for agriculture to support farmers. With the back-end linkage in place, the company is looking at supplying to other players and also at exports.
