Edible oil manufacturer Adani Wilmar (AWL), a Rs6,000-crore joint venture between the Adani Group and the Singapore-based Wilmar International, which makes and sells the Fortune brand of edible oil in India, is looking at acquiring greenfield and brownfield assets from companies in central and south India and plans to invest around Rs600 crore in these projects over the next year.

The company is also expanding refining capacity and is also all set to revamp its existing brands and launch a new range of products.

The company, which has three port-based facilities and seven crushing units with attached refineries across the country, plans to double the capacity of its port-based edible-oil refinery at Haldia in West Bengal to 1,600 tonnes a day (tpd) by December 2009.

This is part of the company's overall corporate plan to have an oilseed crushing capacity of 10,000 tpd, a refining capacity of 7,000 tpd, and a total edible oil volume of 2.5 million tonnes (mt) by 2012, nearly double current capacity. Total outlay on the project is estimated at Rs 100 crore, including the land acquisition cost.

Pranav Adani, managing director of Adani Wilmar said, currently the company has production facilities across the country with a crushing capacity of over 6,000 tonnes per day tpd and refining capacity of over 5,000 tpd.

Atul Chaturvedi, CEO, Adani Wilmar said, the company is scouting for assets in central and southern India for sunflower, soya and mustard oil projects and will invest upto Rs600 crore in these. After buying out three oilseed crushing plants in Madhya Pradesh, the company is close to acquiring a port-based refinery in Mangalore to enter Karnataka's lucrative palm oil market. It is also scouting for assets in Maharashtra.

Chaturvedi said the company also wants to set up new factories closer to the markets as this would bring down logistics costs. He said the company could then pass on the benefit of the lower cost to consumers.

Adani Wilmar's product expansion strategy includes transforming the Fortune brand into a premium brand, and launching two new brands  - Kings for the mid-range segment of the market, and Raag Gold refined palmolein oil targeted at the rural and price sensitive market. With Raag, refined palmolein oil packed in different shop keeping units (SKU), the company is making a foray into the rural markets.

The company is also upgrading its Fortune brand of edible oils to the premium segment from its earlier positioning of a value for money brand. Adani said there was no difference in the quality of oils sold under the two brands.

The brand revamp is with the target of more than doubling annual sales to 2.5 million (25 lakh) tonnes in three years from 1.2 (12 lakh) million tones at present said Adani.
 
The company is also strategising to capitalise on the increasing demand for agro-commodities, through its fully owned subsidiary, 'Adani Agri Fresh,' which will develop integrated storage, handling and transportation infrastructure for fruits and vegetables. The project has so far focused on apples and will soon, diversify into other products. The fruits and vegetables proposed to be preserved will be apples, bananas, grapes, lime, litchi, mango, mosambi, pineapple, papaya, brinjal, bitter gourd, green chillies, peas, cabbage, cauliflower, ginger and garlic, said Chaturvedi.

The company has set up controlled-atmospheric storage units at three locations - Rewali, Sainz and Rohru -  in Himachal Pradesh, with a total annual capacity of around 18,000 mt. Each site has been constructed with seven blocks of six chambers, and a total of 42 chambers at each location. The strategy is to concentrate on seasonal products produced far from major consumption centres. This would enable the company to leverage on its logistic strengths, while also taking advantage of controlled atmospheric storage technology to arbitrage on the price differential between peak and off-peak seasons.

This will enable the company to provide consistent quality of branded fruits and vegetables the year round, under its business-to-business retail brand, 'Farm Pick'. The company will set up distribution centres across India, complemented by its own logistic cold chain.

Adani Wilmar commissioned its first port-based refinery at Mundra in 1999 and entered the branded packaged edible oil business with the launch of 'Fortune' in 2000.

The Indian edible oil industry is estimated at 13 million tonnes, 20 per cent of which is branded. The company claims it has a market share of 19 per cent in the edible oils market.