When I lived in Bangalore, one of the hottest restaurants in town was the Mavalli Tiffin Room, known to everyone at MTR. The owners of the restaurant diversified into the into the instant food business, selling spices and ready-to-eat south Indian snacks and condiments such as “chutneys” and “rasams. MTR products rapidly attained cult status during a time when many young professional women no longer had time to prepare spices and meals from scratch. Since 2007, the packaged business, MTR Foods has been owned by Norway’s Okla.
Now Orkla will acquire 68% of Kerala-based spice maker Eastern Condiments. Eastern employs almost 3,000 people in India across seven states. Eastern also sells ready-to-eat food items, “sambar”, “podi” and more. It offers a mix of non-vegetarian and vegetarian food products n the categories of blended and single spices. Eastern is valued at $273 million in this transaction.
With this move, Orkla is set to double its sales in India and the company stated “With the transaction announced today, Orkla will grow its position as one of the leading branded food players in India and have a platform for further growth in the spice category and in adjacent categories.” (Orkla will acquire the stake through its subsidiary MTR Foods Pvt Ltd). MTR will acquire 42% from the Meeran family and the 26% stake held by McCormick Ingredients. Once complete the Meeran brothers will be left with about 10 percent of the combined India entity and the Norwegian parent with control 90 percent.
