Patanjali to invest Rs 1,000 crore on expansion: Baba Ramdev

New Delhi: Patanjali Ayurved, the FMCG venture promoted by yoga guru Baba Ramdev, will invest Rs 1,000 crore next year on expansion and plans to sharpen focus on e-commerce and exports.

The Haridwar-based firm will set up manufacturing plants in South India and is looking to become partner in mega food park being developed in southern cities.

Patanjali, which has 15,000 stores across the country, plans to add more products in segments where it already has presence such as dairy, instant foods, baby care, natural cosmetics and health supplements.

"We are likely to invest about Rs 1,000 crore in 2016 for various initiatives," Ramdev told PTI.

On the source of funding, he said banks have already sanctioned Rs 500 crore as working capital loan and they are ready to grant more funds for further expansions.

"There is no issue on funding," he said.

Patanjali had sales turnover of Rs 2,000 crore in last fiscal and expects to reach Rs 5,000 crore in FY 2015-16. It operates a large mega food park at Haridwar.

In dairy segment, Ramdev said that Patanjali is planning to launch cow milk powder and is also looking at cheese and chocolates.

That apart, Patanjali will enter into manufacturing of nutritious animal feed and work of improve the indigenous cow breeds to boost milk production.

Ramdev said the company will launch its premium natural cosmetic under Saundarya brand and baby care products under Shishu care brand next month.

On expansion of sales network, he said Patanjali would soon be present in all modern retail chain formats.

"Our products are already at Big Bazaar, Reliance Fresh, D

Mart and other modern retail outlets. Soon they will be available on the other remaining big retail format," said Ramdev.

Patanjali sells its products through 15,000 franchise stores pan India of which 5,000 are big stores and rest are in shop-in-shop concept.

"We are soon coming out with our Patanjali mega stores which would be spread in 2,000-3,000 sq feet, exclusively for our products," Ramdev said.

When asked about e-commerce, he said: "We are present online on a very small scale and we are gearing up to make it big. We are working on that."

Patanjali is considering manufacturing units in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to cater to the Southern market and meet the demand of other regions.

Ramdev said the company would focus on exports from March next year and target countries including USA, UK, Canada.