NEW DELHI, Oct 5: Uttar Pradesh-based BL Agro, which mainly sells edible oils and processed food items, will invest Rs 3,000 crore to expand its business and achieve an aggressive target of growing its revenue 2.5 times to Rs 20,000 crore in the next five years.
In an interview with PTI, CEO Navneet Ravikar said the company would make these investments to fund expansion plans across various food categories like rice and milk.
BL Agro Group, which sells cooking oils under the brand ‘Bail Kolhu’ and processed food items under ‘Nourish’ and other brands, had a turnover of around Rs 8,000 crore in 2024-25 fiscal.
The Bareilly-based family-owned group has plans to invest around Rs 3,000 crore in the next five years on expansion of several projects, which include setting up a rice business along with milk. It will also set up a 360-degree value chain with manufacturing to processing unit, along with a feed processing and CBG (Compressed Bio Gas) units, he said.
As part of its growth strategy, the BL Agro group is focusing on creating an ecosystem around its new businesses with a 360-degree approach, where a by-product of one unit would serve as a raw material for another. Moreover, it is also trying to involve the community in projects.
When asked about the investments, Ravikar said: “Yes, we are planning to invest Rs 3,000 crores in the next five years.”
About the modes of funding, he said it would be a joint venture as well as through internal accruals.
“So, the idea is to bring partners from outside as well and to fund internally by ourselves as well,” he said, adding there is ‘huge interest’ in the global market about the Indian food processing industry, and companies from Russia, the Middle East, Europe and even from South American countries such as Brazil are eager to partner.
Last week, BL Agro has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) to invest Rs 1,660 crore, under which it will set up a large-scale greenfield integrated agro-processing project at Bareilly, which will have a fully automated rice milling unit, edible oil extraction and refining plant.
Now BL Agro, known for brand Bail Kolhu and Nourish, has plans to enter the premium segment through its ‘Leads Connect’ brand, bringing the marquee commodities into the Indian market, which is witnessing premiumisation with the growing economy and rise of income in metro cities.
According to Ravikar, “As a group, we have several different group companies. As a group turnover, we are around Rs 8,000 crore, and we are expanding very fast. We plan to cross Rs 20,000 crore by 2030.”
The group plans to amplify the play of its brand Nourish, which operates in the packed food segment. According to Ravikar, currently there are 67 products under Nourish, which is a nearly Rs 4,500 crore business.
Currently, the group gets around 75 per cent of its revenue from Bail Kolhu and the remaining 25 per cent from other businesses. However, as the group expands, Ravikar expects the ratio from its other business to increase further.
BL Agro is targeting Gen Z customers with products such as macaroni, wheat-based and suji-based pasta. Besides, it has dalia, stone-crushed multi-grain atta (wheat floor), offering healthy alternatives to customers.
“So, the idea is to have something for all the segments,” he said, adding, “we have different product profiles” for different segments.
In the food segment, BL Agro is working on a multi-brand strategy, where it is tapping the middle and upper middle segment through Nourish.
“For the top marquee segment, we will do it in Leads Connect, bringing the best commodities into India and then the market is using our branding,” he said.
Besides domestic market, BL Agro is also looking at export opportunities.
About exports, Ravikar said: “We do not want to be a traditional trading entity. We are looking at exports in terms of G2G and B2B, wherein we can bring in a partner here, make something at a totally export-oriented unit and ship it outside.”
BL Agro Group, which originally started business as a mustard trading enterprise, now houses brands such as BL Agro Industries, Leads Connect, Leads NexTech, and Leads Agri Genetics. (PTI)
The post BL Agro aims to become USD 2.25-bn group by 2030, to invest Rs 3,000 cr in 5 years appeared first on Daily Excelsior.