Cigarettes-to-hotels major ITC Ltd will soon foray into new categories such as beverages that include fruit juices, tea, coffee and chocolates and dairy products.
The foray will be to cope with pressures piling on the cigarettes business because of high taxation. “We will enter into new segments like beverages,” company Chairman YC Deveshwar told reporters after the company Annual General Meeting in Kolkata on Wednesday.
Earlier at the AGM, Deveshwar pointed out that there would be a gestation period for building these new businesses.
As a part of its plan to enter the dairy sector, ITC is constructing a milk processing unit at Munger in Bihar.
The company is also mulling entry in “functional food” or naturally processed food.
A shrinking volume in cigarette sales might also lead ITC to launch e-cigarettes. However, such a launch will only be possible once there’s clarity on the policy.