Following a stellar performance with a turnover of ₹10,000 crore in FY23, Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting has expanded further with its latest acquisition of a Kerala-based food brand, Brahmins. While the company continues to grow inorganically, it is also engaged in building a snack brand of its own, said Vineet Agrawal, CEO of Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting, and Managing Director of Wipro Enterprises.
Brahmins specialises in traditional vegetarian, spice mix and ready-to-cook and closed its sales at ₹120 crore in FY23. Its acquisition is the 14th that Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting has done in the last 20 years, investing slightly over $1 billion in total. Prior to the latest acquisition, Wipro acquired Nirapara.
With two acquisitions already in the food space, the company is looking at becoming a sizable player in the packaged foods segment and has a focus on three categories — ready-to-cook, spices and snacks. “We are currently working on the snack side and will be organically building a brand of our own in this category,” Agrawal said during a press conference.
Wipro said the estimated size of the spices market in the country is ₹72,000 crore, of which straight spices account for around ₹55,000 crore, and blended spices for around ₹12,000-15,000 crore. Ready-to-cook category has an estimated market size of ₹3,400 crore.
As its immediate focus, the company aims to get deeper into the Kerala market, which makes up 66 per cent of Brahmins’ sales. Four per cent of its sales comes from rest of the country, and the remainder from exports, said the CEO.
Another focus is to tap into the southern population and for exports. Though the company refused to comment on the cost of its acquisition, the CEO said it is a cash deal based on the company’s last two years’ performance.
According to Agrawal, manufacturing would remain with the current owners for the next six years. In terms of investing, he said, “We will invest in upgrading the current plants; we will have to add manufacturing. But it is not very significant given the size of the need. These are not very expensive.”
Wipro will absorb Brahmins’ current workforce, excluding the manufacturing workforce, which the original owner of the company will continue to look after. The Kerala food brand has a headcount of around 280 people.
Established in 1987, Brahmins is one of the most preferred brands in its home market, with ethnic breakfast pre-mix powders, spice mixes, straight powders (spices), wheat products such as pickles, dessert mixes and others. The premium flagship products are sambar powder and puttu podi.
Sreenath Vishnu, MD, Brahmins, said, “We are happy that Brahmins is now a part of Wipro Consumer Care foods business. This will enable access to resources that will help the brand grow rapidly. We are jointly focused on developing the brand, supported by local consumer insights and streamlining manufacturing.”