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Ch. Prashanth Reddy

HYDERABAD, April 8

AGRO Tech Foods Ltd (AFTL), a subsidiary of global food major ConAgra, will be shortly introducing frozen french fries into the market.

The AFTL President, Mr Utpal Sen Gupta, told Business Line that the new product would be initially supplied to institutions in 1 kg packs priced at Rs 70. The product is basically from ConAgra's stable whose sales were sought to be routed through AFTL in India.

Mr Gupta said the company, which has launched iodised salt in the southern markets two months back, was exploring the possibility of entering wheat and rice export business. AFTL was already into the export of soya meal.

AFTL was expecting a 50 per cent rise in its turnover during 2001-02. But the profit margins were so low that there would not be a significant increase in the company's net income.

Given this scenario, Mr Gupta said AFTL would be devoting its attention on cutting costs. The focus would be on how to withstand the competition from regional players ``who are very competitive''.

Keeping this in mind, the company is now sorting out its logistics and supply chain apart from embarking on the exercise of reducing transportation and packaging costs. The company is also in the process of computerising its whole operations.

AFTL has posted a turnover of Rs 575.6 crore and a net profit of Rs 1.9 crore during 2000-01. During 2001-02, AFTL had closed the operations of the Mantaralayam unit, which it had taken on lease from ITC Ltd. The facility was stated to be no longer a competitive asset in a cost efficiency market.

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