How SYMEGA is Playing with FlavoursSYMEGA is now touching revenue of INR 500 crores and is working in five manufacturing verticalsseasoning, culinary, flavours, natural colours, and plant-based foods and beverages.

SYMEGA Food Ingredients Ltd, the seasoning and flavours arm of Synthite Industries Pvt. Ltd was established in 2006 in a joint venture with Omega Technologies, Austria. It became a fully-owned company of Synthite in 2010.

"Since the 1990s, after the economy opened up and multinationals set up bases in India, we became exposed to pizza culture. Our daily foods were rice, lentils, and bread. Slowly, that was getting transformed into processed foods like pizzas, burgers, and nuggets. All these processed foods would need something, some kind of ingredient from a company like us to enhance the taste, flavours, and appeal," shares Santhosh Stephen, managing director, SYMEGA Food Ingredients Ltd.

Slowly and steadily, SYMEGA is now touching revenue of INR 500 crores and is working in five manufacturing verticals- seasoning, culinary, flavours, natural colours, and plant-based foods and beverages. However, from 2006-2010, the company faced its own share of challenges, Stephen recalls. "We were newcomers in that space. The industry was not aware of such a facility available in the South of India. So, we had to do a lot of capability presentations to potential customers. These customers were all processed food companies. Since 2010, we have never looked back," he adds.

It has its product development centres in Delhi, Bangalore, and now, Mumbai and its production facility reside near Kochi, Kerala. SYMEGA has catered to about 450 customers in tier 1, 2, and 3 cities and its revenue ratio for home and away is around 80:20. In August 2020, the vertical established its office in Dubai to capture the Middle East market.

"The plant-based products such as the millet milk, and cheese made out of plant protein have to be scaled out and offered to a bigger clientele outside India. There are a lot of opportunities outside India for such development, so we have to pursue that. Secondly, we may soon think of setting up a factory in North India for manufacturing the seasonings. And third is, we have established an office in Dubai to push forward the exports of seasonings. Now, again in Dubai, it's only an office, so we also have to set up a developmental centre to create products and showcase them to customers there," he adds.

In 3-5 years, it is eying to set up its business in the US, the biggest market for natural colours.

FACTS:

>> Year of inception of the company- 2006

>> Head office location- Kochi

>> Turnover for FY 2022-23- 478 crore