Despite a barrage of advertising from att Brands on various media platforms only 11-12% att is branded. Along with other staples, 95% of sugar and 92% of legumes are sold loose, while only 5% of all rice (mostly basmati) is sold branded. “India needs a change here,” stresses Mallick.

He believes that with GDP growth forecast to remain stable at 7-8% over the next few years, Indian consumers will earn enough to be able to afford healthy and branded products. Since hardly any national player excludes ITC in the staple business, the opportunities are huge. After all, the per capita consumption of rice in India is 55 kg and wheat 60 kg. An average Indian consumes 24kg of sugar per year and 22kg of legumes, but none of these categories have marks of the scale.

The Ahmedabad-headquartered FMCG company, which reported a 45.50% year-on-year increase in total revenue for FY22 and a 10.33% increase in net income, entered the Fortune 500 Listing after 2011, thanks to a public offering in February that raised ₹3,600 crore.

building scale

The key factor in running a successful staple food business is an accurate understanding of scale. “We don’t talk about pounds because we’ve grown with the understanding that when it comes to volume, we can play well. So we only speak in metric tons,” says Mallick, who expects Adani Wilmar to grow 40% year-over-year on staples.

Scaling is also important when selecting categories. The company has ventured into several categories (att, besan, rice, sugar, etc.) as a basket of products, particularly in a category like staple foods, gives a firm better economies of scale. “The same buyer who buys soybeans for me also buys wheat. From March to July he buys wheat, from September it’s time for soybeans. Likewise, October to March is rice season in Punjab and Haryana, so buyers who buy rice can also buy wheat. This significantly reduces operating costs.”

The company has also set up integrated manufacturing facilities. “We process oil, besanrice and dal in the same facility. The same factory manages everything, we have the same security forces, the same laboratory and the same quality control staff for all products. It reduces production costs as it eliminates many overhead costs.”