Phalada Agro Research Foundation Pvt Ltd, which manufactures and trades in organic food products under the brand name Pure & Sure, proposes to set up its own retail chain of organic stores in Bengaluru soon.
“We plan to set up two large format stores of around 1,500 sq feet and about three-to-five small outlets by the end of the year,” said Surya Shastry, managing director, Phalada Agro Research Foundation. Besides, the company is also exploring options to enter the markets in Delhi and Chennai.
Phalada manufactures and trades in some 140-odd products for the domestic market. The company currently sells its products through the general and modern trade but none sells the entire range. “The idea is to sell all our products under one roof through the retail presence,” Shastry said.
Phalada proposes to invest about ₹3-4 crore in the proposed retail chain of organic stores and the investments will be from internal accruals. The proposed large format stores will also have cafe and experience centres for consumers to taste organic food, he added.
Organics is one of the fastest growing categories in the country's retail segment. Phalada, with a back-end supply chain of over 2,000 farmers having certified farms of over 8,000 hectares, is well poised to tap into the domestic market, Shastry claimed. However, Shastry refused to disclose the earnings of Phalada, citing it was privately held.
According to Crisil, which upgraded the long term rating for Phalada to BB+/Stable in November last year, the revenues of the company for 2017 stood at ₹57.69 crore and net profit at ₹2.26 crore. In 2016, Phalada had posted a revenue and net profit of ₹44.35 crore and ₹1.14 crore respectively.
At present, the company earns about a fourth of its revenues from the domestic market and the rest from exports overseas."The domestic market is growing for us at a rate of 50 per cent year-on-year, while the exports are growing between 20-30 per cent," Shastry said. Phalada is among the major exporters of organic products such as spices and herbs.