Britannia Industries Ltd., India’s largest cookie producer, has signed an agreement for operations in Kenya as part of its strategy to grow in Africa.
According to Mikul Shah, a director at Kenafric, the business partnered with Nairobi-based Kenafric Industries to buy Catalyst Capital-backed Britania Foods Ltd. in Kenya in a $20 million transaction that included included acquiring property and a plant. According to him, Britannia Industries, which is unconnected to Britania Foods, obtained a majority position in the partnership.
According to Kenafric, the restored plant in Nairobi will be commissioned this week.
In India, Britannia is a 130-year-old corporation whose products include Good Day and Marie Gold biscuits. It has sought to increase capacity in Africa, where governments aim to boost national industries and limit imports of items that can be manufactured locally.
Bloomberg reported in March that the corporation has recently established contract-packing factories in Egypt and Uganda, and that it was eyeing initiatives in Kenya and Nigeria.
When reached on Tuesday, Britannia Industries did not react immediately to inquiries regarding the Kenya agreement.
Kenafric, which is funded by private equity companies Amethis in Paris and Metier in Johannesburg, is a family-owned company that began as a footwear manufacturer in 1987. According to Shah, it joined the biscuit sector four years ago as it expanded into items such as confectionary, drinks, stationery, and culinary spices. It is present in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and Malawi.
“We had to make a huge investment or figure out what to do since it was too little to continue in our portfolio,” Shah said of the cookies company. According to him, the agreement with Britannia Industries would enable Kenafric move from fifth to second place in Kenya’s cookie industry.
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