Pet food major Mars Inc. announces expansion in Telangana, to invest Rs 800-Cr

NEW YORK: Global pet food major Mars Inc. to commence phase-II expansion in Telangana with an investment of Rs 800 crore.

Mars Petcare has a plant with fixed capital investment of Rs 200 crore in Siddipet district where they manufacture pet food under well-known brands such as Pedigree and Whiskers.

Mars Petcare signed an MoU with the Government of Telangana on December 17, 2021, for the expansion of their manufacturing plant in Telangana with an additional investment of Rs 500 crore. The latest announcement took the total fixed capital investment of Mars Inc. in the State from Rs 200 crore to Rs 1,500 crore.

Telangana State delegation led by IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao (KTR) met with Sekhar Krishnamoorthy, Chief Data and Analytics Officer for Pet Nutrition at Mars Inc. in New York.

Telangana government and Mars Inc. agreed to get into a broad base partnership to establish initiatives to improve pet care and pet nutrition in the country. Mars Petcare Inc. expressed a desire to expand manufacturing in tune with the increasing demand for petcare products in India.

Sekhar Krishnamoorthy said that he had held talks with KTR about the possibility of setting up Research and Development (R&D), digital transformation, agricultural supply chain and innovation and sustainability activities under the expansion programme.

KTR expressed happiness over the expansion plans of the company and said that the move showed the confidence that the US-based company had in Telangana. “The company that started operations with Rs 200 crore now grew to Rs 1,500 crore which will bring more employment opportunities to local youth,” KTR said.

Mars is the fourth-largest privately held company in the United States with confectionary and petcare as two large verticals. Mars Petcare has a large presence in Telangana, also being the headquarters of the Petcare division in India. The Mars team has also worked closely with various government agencies on empowering farmer producer companies and self-help groups in the state for direct farm gate procurement of agricultural produce such as maize. They have also worked closely to establish viable value chains for the aggregation of poultry waste from MEPMA groups