McCain Foods India recently added Veggie Fingers to its range of products available to catering and institutional customers. The new offering joins Veggie Nuggets and Veggie Burgers, each of which features a combination of vegetables, potatoes and tandoori seasoning coated in crisp breadcrumbs.
Meanwhile the Florenceville, New Brunswick, Canada-headquartered company, best known for frozen french fries and appetizers in India and around the world, is expanding its distribution network on the subcontinent in a bid to reach up to 50,000 retail stores within the next five years. That will a five-fold increase in it current client base of approximately 10,000 retail outlets in the Indian market, where it has been active since 1998.
“We have customized our products to appeal to local Indian taste buds,” said Vikas Mittal, managing director of McCain Foods India, told Food & Hospitality World a recent interview. “The Indian customer is getting familiar with frozen foods. We have done extensive research to grow the best quality potatoes for our products, and will continue to offer a wide variety of vegetarian products to our customers – from french fries to potato specialties and cheese appetizers to an entire veggie range.”
Mittal, anticipating steady growth in the years ahead, added: “The frozen foods category in India is still at a nascent stage. This market is evolving gradually and is very crucial for us. With the growing number of malls and with consumer footfalls moving away from high streets to both shopping malls and travel locations, consumer foodservice operators are also looking at such locations to set up their outlets. McCain therefore, envisions scope for significant growth.”
