Wipro Consumer Care acquires another Kerala food brand Brahmins

In fiscal 2023, Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting reported Rs 10,000 crores in sales, with 51% of revenues coming from overseas businesses

Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) major Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting on Thursday announced its acquisition of the Kerala-based packaged foods brand Brahmins, further consolidating its play in India's packaged foods market. Last year, in December it had acquired another Kerala brand Nirapara.

With these two acquisitions, Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting “is looking to become a sizable player in the packaged foods segment” and consolidating its spices, breakfast and ready-to-cook category.

Also Read | India, Thailand discuss linking UPI with Prompt Pay Service

"In Kerala, Brahmins is a strong heritage brand leading the spice and ready-to-cook category with a significant consumer recall. The high-quality standards adopted by Brahmins have played a key role in making it one of the most significant players in the market," said Vineet Agrawal, Chief Executive Officer, Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting and Managing Director, Wipro Enterprises.

"This will enable access to resources that will help the brand grow rapidly. We are jointly focused on developing the brand supported by local consumer insights as well as streamlining manufacturing. We are confident that with Wipro’s distribution network, and marketing strength, we will significantly expand our geographical presence and scale Brahmins to newer heights,” Sreenath Vishnu, MD, Brahmins said.

“It is a cash deal linked to the performance of the company in the current year and next year,” said Sachin Bansal, Vice President and Business Chief Financial Officer- Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting not disclosing the financial details of the acquisition.

The company will focus on Kerala and distributing in the deepest parts of Kerela, targetting largely “Malayali population and South Indian population”. Agarwal pointed out that ‘spices’ is a Rs 72,000-crore market, with 12 per cent compound annual growth rate, of which, over 35 per cent of the revenue comes from the South region.

"Adding Brahmins under the Wipro fold will further bolster our position in blended spices and ethnic breakfast categories in Kerala and other markets such as the GCC countries, UK, US and Australia," said Anil Chugh, President, Foods Business, Wipro Consumer Care.

This is the 14th acquisition for the Bengaluru-based company, which previously acquired energy drink brand Glucovita and personal care brand Yardley. The company has till now invested over a billion dollars in acquisitions including the recent two in the food line. It is also working on launching its own ready-to-cook and packaged foods brand.

“We are setting up our R&D lab in Bangalore, and are working to launch our own brand in the next six to nine months," Agrawal, told DH.

In fiscal 2023, Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting reported Rs 10,000 crores in sales, with 51 per cent of revenues coming from overseas businesses.