Kolkata, June 14 (IANS) Tata Tea is eyeing a substantial growth in business in South Asia, particularly in the neighbouring nations of Pakistan and Bangladesh, a top company official said here Monday.
‘South Asia including India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan is the largest top line contributor for the company. There are limitless possibilities of growth in South Asia,’ the company’s executive director, Sangeeta Talwar, said on the sidelines of a programme.
She said in South Asia the opportunity lay not in tapping a new market but growing in the existing ones.
‘We have very small presence in Pakistan and Bangladesh but we have good joint venture partners there. We are now building our business in a way that we can really leapfrog our growth there,’ Talwar told reporters.
The company has started making its presence in the tea business in the two countries. In Bangladesh, it has a market share of less than five percent. In Pakistan, it is less than seven percent.
‘We need to go beyond the 10 percent stage. Our effort will be to build a strong distribution system and branding in these two markets. It will take us around two years to achieve 10 percent market share in these two countries,’ the official said.
The market size in Bangladesh is around 45 million kg, while the official market in Pakistan is around 70 million kg. The total market in Pakistan is 160 million kg, but almost half of that is illegal imports.
She said the company was now focusing on distribution.
