Mumbai: Reliance Consumer Products Ltd (RCPL), the packaged consumer goods arm of Reliance Industries Ltd, on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Maharashtra government to invest ₹1,513 crore in Katol, Nagpur, to set up a manufacturing facility for beverages and food products.
The Nagpur project will generate employment for 500 people and enhance Maharashtra’s food processing and consumer goods industry.
The Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) of Maharashtra made the announcement on the social media platform X on Thursday evening.
The state government announced the signing of other MOUs totaling ₹1.08 trillion on Thursday to attract greater investment into the state in sectors such as real estate, technology, data centres, and packaged goods manufacturing.
CM Devendra Fadnavis presided over the signing and exchange, which was witnessed by the RCPL delegates.
The move comes as RCPL has planned to invest heavily in the Indian market, where it currently sells beverages, floor cleaners, and snacks.
This follows an announcement last month from its parent company, RIL, that it aims for Reliance Consumer Products to reach ₹1 trillion in revenue from its packaged goods business within the next five years.
The company plans to invest ₹40,000 crore over the next three years in building manufacturing capabilities for packaged foods and large-scale infrastructure, including Asia's largest integrated food parks with AI-driven automation, robotics, and sustainable technologies, per announcements made at the company’s 48th annual general meeting (AGM) late August.
RCPL eyes FMCG leadership
"Our near-term ambition is clear: to be the fastest-growing consumer brands company to reach a ₹1 trillion revenue within five years. Our long-term ambition is to become India's largest FMCG company with a global presence. This will make RCPL a big new value-creating engine for Reliance Industries, comparing it to a retail business in both size and profitability,” Isha M. Ambani, executive director of Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd, said at the company's AGM.
In a recent interview with Mint, T. Krishnakumar, director of RCPL, said that the company, which entered the packaged consumer goods market in 2022, is planning to set up food parks across the country.
“We want to have a food park in every state. Alongside, we will still have a hybrid model. We are working with partners who co-manufacture, but considering the scale of work that needs to be done, we are going to have some amount of manufacturing, which will be done by us. For instance, for home and personal care, we don't need distributed manufacturing like we do for food and beverages because of shelf life constraints, etc.,” he said.
The investments come as more companies plan to shift from unbranded to branded goods over the coming decades. About 60% of total retail consumption expenditure in India is still food-related.
India’s market for packaged convenience food is expected to reach ₹4,883 billion by FY26 with an 11% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over FY22, per recent estimates by Deloitte. India’s overall non-alcoholic beverages market is expected to grow 6.7% annually until 2028.
