Avanti Feeds is the big fish when it comes to fish feeds and shrimp business. The Chairman and Managing Director, Alluri Indra Kumar has consolidated the prawn, fish feeds and shrimp business in India and gone global with a joint venture with Thailand based Union Frozen Products PCL.
Avanti started its commercial operations in 1993 under the leadership of Late Alluri Venkateswara Rao in technical collaboration with Pingtai Enterpries, Taiwan. Later his son Alluri Indra Kumar the current Chairman & Managing Director has expanded the capacity and enhanced technical and marketing capabilities by bringing on board Thai Union Frozen Products PCL.
He started his career as General Manager of SRINIVASA CYSTINE LIMITED, which was engaged in manufacture and export of L-Cystine and other Amino Acids. After that, he was nominated as Executive Director with full responsibility of the company.
During the year 1992, he was inducted as Director in to the Board of Avanti Feeds Limited. He was appointed as Executive Director, with responsibility to look after the shrimp feed manufacture, processing and exporting of shrimp. In the year 2002, Alluri Indra Kumar took over as Managing Director. Kumar, with his varied experience is instrumental in development of shrimp culture and processing by bringing-in latest technology in feed manufacture and also development of value added shrimp products for exports, earning valuable foreign exchange to the country.
For FY16 revenue was at Rs 2,018.29 Crore (Rs 1,780.66 Crore), up by 13.34 per cent. For Q3FY17 revenue was at Rs 558.62 Crore (Rs 413.11 Crore), up by 35.22 per cent.
Kumar is hoping to become a billion dollar player by the end of year 2020. The company has more than 40 per cent share in the Indian Fish and Prawn feeds market. They have spent hundreds of crores in last couple of years which has led to a substantial growth in capacity. The company has expanded shrimp feed manufacturing capacity by setting of a new plant with an installed capacity of 125,000 MT per annum and also commenced commercial production. It has also focused on setting up a hatchery as backward integration in Andhra Pradesh.
Kumar is keeping a tight control over costs which is resulting in a sustained rise in profitability. Currently Avanti feeds shrimp processing capacity is 25 tonnes per day. But the company is all set to commission a new plant which will be operative by the end of March 2017 and the capacity will become 75 tonnes per day.
He is expecting around 25 per cent growth for the financial year 2018. He is going for higher value addition products which are currently unavailable in India. The objective behind the forthcoming plan is to get the value added products for the direct consumers.
Avanti Feeds has generated over 1000 per cent returns for their shareholders in last two years. The business condition will turn well for the fish processed company after government announcement to grow marine exports by 20 per cent. Avanti Feeds can gain maximum benefits post this announcement because they earn 85 per cent of revenue by selling shrimp feed and rest from shrimp processing.
The revenue break up between Shrimp Exports and Shrimp Feed is currently at 15:85, company is focusing to improve the ratio to 40:60. Kumar hopes to achieve this transformation by 2020 when it emerges as a billion dollar global company.
BW Reporters
The author is a journalist with BW Businessworld. He primarily covers Retail, Media & Entertainment and Travel & Tourism sectors
