Adani Wilmar, which recently forayed into the whole wheat segment, is betting big on the premiumisation and personalisation trends in this category. Under its whole wheat range, the company is offering varieties such as Sharbati, Poorna 1544, Lokwan, and MP Grade 1.
In a recent conversation, Vineeth Viswambharan, Associate Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, Adani Wilmar Ltd told businessline, “About 50,000 crore of consumer spends are going into buying wheat annually in the country. It is a fragmented and largely unorganised market. About 10-15 per cent of these spends go into buying premium varieties of wheat by discerning households, which are very selective about their preferred wheat varieties which they get ground under their supervision in neighbourhood chakki stores. This is the segment that we are targeting with our branded offerings as a national brand under brand Fortune.”
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He added that the company sees strong potential for its whole wheat offerings in markets such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi-NCR, Punjab, and Rajasthan. “This is not just an urban phenomenon, and these affluent consumers are spread across large towns as well as small towns. However, the concentration of such consumers is relatively higher in large cities in Northern and Western regions. We believe the whole wheat business can become as big as our wheat flour business or even larger,” Viswambharan added.
The packaged food major is targeting household consumers as well as institutional buyers. At the same time, it is also making a play in the growing personalisation trend. “There is a segment of affluent consumers who are moving from branded atta to more personalised options. We are in the process of partnering with some of the larger neighbourhood chakki stores, where whole wheat buying consumers go to get their wheat flour grounded. This is currently in the pilot stage in some metros,” he added. The company has also begun offering wheat grounding services at some of its Fortune Mart stores through shop-in-shop chakki format, which it plans to scale up.
Wheat flour
Meanwhile, the wheat flour category has witnessed strong growth rates in the February-April period as per Kantar.
‘The Atta (whole wheat flour) category, comprising packed and loose segments, has grown by 28 per cent in Jan-Feb-March 23 over the same period in 2022. At segment level, packed Atta grew by 11 per cent, while loose Atta grew at 54 per cent, driven by the reduction in free wheat grain distribution under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana. During the same period, Fortune Atta grew at a rate substantially higher than both Packed & Loose segments,” added Viswambharan.