News: Pantaloon Foods to source mangoes from Maharashtra

(BS 03/05/2006) Mumbai - Pantaloon Foods, the new foods arm of Pantaloon Retail, has tied up with the Maharashtra State Agricultural Marketing Board to source the farm produce such as alphonso mangoes and other seasonal fruits as part of its "farm to plate initiative".

The retail chain has inked similar agreements for other fruits, both locally as well as internationally which would be introduced in the stores in the course of the year.

"As part of this new initiative, Pantaloon Foods has tied up directly with farmers to source food products," said Damodar Mall, president-foods, Pantaloon Retail.

The company also plans to introduce a range of cheese under its Fresh and Pure labels. It recently launched butter and ghee. Mall said the response to both these products has been very encouraging.

As part of this initiative, Pantaloon Foods is looking at creating a portfolio of brands under which it will market the produce. Mall said that three brands would be the generic Food Bazaar brand, Premium Harvest, a premium brand and Fresh and Pure.

Pantaloon Foods would focus on commodities and basic processed food such as atta and oil, which the company would be launching soon. Other products such as chips would be introduced soon under the Food Bazaar private labels.

He also said, at present, the focus is on gearing the back end to improve their supply chain. The company has tied up directly with millers and farmers to source the produce directly from them.

"We are not looking at getting into farming ourselves, but will provide knowledge based support to the farmers," he said.

To this effect, the company has set up a team comprising professionals in the commodity business as well as people with a trading background to oversee these plans.

"We provide some suggestions to improve productivity for the farmers. The idea is to improve consistency and product delivery and at the same time reduce the risk factor," he explained.