INDIA – Global food company, Kraft Heinz has entered into a distribution partnership with the Indian subsidiary of diversified Japanese food maker Nissin Food Products to commercialize its food products in India.

Indo Nissin will distribute Kraft Heinz existing products like ketchup while the deal may also involve new product launches by the company in the country.

Kraft Heinz is looking to utilize the global distribution network and marketing expertise of Nissin, which has a strong market presence in India.

According to Indo Nissin managing director, Gautam Sharma, the company has a distribution network of 250,000 stores and the partnership will help expand business outreach.

The partnership will target multiple channels such as retail, modern trade, government channels and e-commerce distribution avenues.

It will also aim to open up new markets and introduce additional products from the Kraft Heinz stable into the Indian market.

“This partnership will provide Kraft Heinz a platform to distribute and make its global product portfolio available to Indian consumers.

The access to their favourite Heinz Tomato Ketchup will continue uninterrupted post the India non-core business divesture.

Kraft Heinz has robust growth plans for 2019-20 for the Indian market.

We are looking to aggressively grow in India with the support of Indo Nissin Foods’ distribution channels,” said Sankalp Potbhare, MD of Kraft Heinz India.

The deal comes months after Kraft Heinz completed the sale of Indian brands Complan, Glucon-D, Nycil and Sampriti to Zydus Wellness and its affiliates.

The US$628 million divestment deal included two large manufacturing facilities of Heinz India in Aligarh and Sitarganj and teams devoted to operations, research, sales, marketing and support.

Plans to find a suitable distribution partner for the Indian business were unveiled in December, in a strategy to take its global brands to India after sale of its business operations in India.

The company has banked on a divestment path while investing in high-growth categories including sale of its Canadian natural cheese business to dairy firm Parmalat.

It also agreed to sell its branded Middle East & Africa cheese business to Arla for a sum that was not disclosed.

For Indo Nissin, this was the second distribution deal in two years after that with breakfast cereal maker Bagrrys.