Keventer Agro mulls ₹200 crore expansion plan

Lalatendu Mishra

Keventer Agro Ltd., one of the largest food and agriculture companies from eastern India, is planning to invest about ₹200 crore to expand its milk and banana businesses in eastern and northern India, a top executive said.

“We are planning to invest ₹180-200 crore in the next two years, out of which about ₹40-50 crore will go to our dairy business to augment existing capacity,” said Mayank Jalan, CMD, Keventer Agro Ltd.

“We have earmarked ₹80 crore for our banana business. And the balance will go into our Frooti business [Keventer Agro is Parle Agro’s largest franchise for Frooti, Appy and Bailley],” Mr. Jalan said.

The company would raise debt to meet this capital investment plan. “We are very under-leveraged, so we might be looking at debt.”

The company, which has a turnover of more than ₹1,000 crore, sold over 30,000 tonnes of banana last year [March 2018] under the Keventer brand.

“This year, our target is to achieve at least 50,000 tonnes. By 2022, we want to get to 150-180,000 tonnes volume,” he said.

He said the company will soon expand its value added milk business to Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, northeast and Chhattisgarh.