From Italy to India
From Italy to India

Mutti, the Italian brand, is one of the leading manufacturers of tomato based products. The brand has recently entered the Indian market to give the consumers a feel of Italian cuisines, all at home. Arvind Tomar, Executive India, Mutti India explains the business plan for India and how brand identity will be popularised in India.

Gunjan Piplani (GP): From Italy to India, kindly elaborate on the journey.

Arvind Tomar (AT): Mutti has been a known brand for past 100 years in Italy for tomato based category.  Mutti Italy has created various formats for Tomato based products with unique recipe e.g. Pulp, Puree, unique range of Sauce, peeled tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, ketchup, Tomato concentrates ( double and triple concentrates) with and without vegetables, tomato vinegar, etc. They also represent various options for packaging for consumers i.e. Cans, Bottle, Plastics and Tubes forms. It’s a long journey that started 100 years ago and finally landed in India with its unique recipe to bring True Italian cuisine experience for Indian consumers.   

(GP): What new are you bringing for the Indian consumers?

(AT): Our products offer complete Italian cuisine flavour for the Indian taste buds, though the taste is slightly spiced up to Indian palate. We use 100 per cent Italian tomatoes and herbs and our Pasta and Pizza sauce is 100 per cent natural without any preservatives, no added color, no added flavoring agent and no thickening agent. It is 100 per cent vegetarian. 

(GP): How do you see the Indian consumer market for your product? What are the price points?

(AT): In India Italian cuisine is third largest and fastest growing food category after Indian and Chinese food. Out of home awareness is very high and our objective will be to drive in home consumption of pasta and pizza with true authentic taste and differentiation. We have 225 gm pouch at Rs 80 and our 380 gm glass bottle is priced at Rs 130.

(GP): How are you selling your products in India? Kindly explain the supply chain and retail structure?

(AT): We will set distribution network comparable to any FMCG. We will have from factory to CFA to distributor to retailers. The focus will be high on modern trade as we have good Target audience at Modern Trade.

(GP): What is your retail presence in India? What is the growth plan from here on?

(AT): We just started in Noida as test market launch in April and we will gradually make Pan-India presence.

(GP): What is your target audience and target cities?

(AT): Metros and mini metros are our target cities and our target audience are people who are aware about the Italian cuisines and are out of home user and wanted to experience and experiment true authentic Italian food at home.

(GP): What is your marketing strategy in India? Kindly elaborate about your ATL and BTL activities?

(AT): For BTL our objective will be to make people aware about our brand authenticity and learn art of pasta and pizza cooking. We plan to educate consumers about pasta and pizza preparation and cooking at home through live demonstrations and tasting. ATL will be town specific till we reach Pan-India and we go to electronic media TV Campaign.

(GP): How are you competing with the well established brands in India?

(AT): We are actually not competing with them as our Offering is unique and very well differentiated in pasta and pizza category, where we bring True Italian Authenticity and Experience. Our Quality, Authenticity and uniqueness will make us category driver and our objective will be to grow category.

(GP): What are your target revenues for the next year?

(AT): We expect category to have significant growth and next two years category will be well above 50 Crores in this segment and we will like to dominate the category.

(GP): What is interesting and exclusive about Mutti?

(AT): Its unique authentic Italian recipe and 100 year old brand, bringing true Italian cuisine and experience to Indian consumers. 

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