Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, McCain Foods Limited is the world’s largest producer of French fries and potato specialties with 53 plants on six continents and sales of over CAD$6 billion.
McCain Foods India Pvt. Ltd is a wholly-owned subsidiary of McCain Foods Limited. The company has set up a potato processing plant in Mehsana district of Gujarat with an elaborate India strategy.
K S Narayanan, MD, McCain Foods India Pvt. Ltd, shares details with FnBNews.com reporter Archana Aroor in an email interview.
An excerpt:
How is the frozen food market in India? What is the growth rate and the opportunities involved in the segment?
The frozen food market in India is at a nascent stage with few products, low consumer awareness levels, underdeveloped frozen food distribution network, and lack of freezer space at the retail end.
The key to grow such markets is a range of high quality affordable products made available close to consumers. These can help stimulate demand and address other issues like development of cold chain facilities.
In the last few years, consumers in India have gone through a dramatic transformation in lifestyle by moving from traditional spending on food and groceries to lifestyle and convenience food products thus leading to growth in home consumption of frozen foods.
This demand for ‘convenience food’ has also supported good growth in frozen foods, with consumers appreciating the convenience of stocking up and keeping easily prepared food at hand. This is evident by the rise in the number of frozen food products being offered in the Indian market today. Moreover, increasing penetration of organised retail chains has aided in the demand for frozen food products. Apart from convenience in cooking at home, quick service restaurants have equally contributed to the growth of frozen foods.
French Fries and Potato Specialties