Prataap Snack is a large-scale manufacturer of snacks that operates nine facilities and has a vast distribution network of 240 super-stockers and over 4,100 distributors.
While working for a decade in the candy industry he decided to become a producer of chemicals. Amit was in Rs 6 Crore debt in less than a year. He was closing down the company, repaying his creditors, and contemplating his next step.
One day, Amit hit upon the idea of replicating Peppy Cheese Balls’ performance. He noticed that Indore was an under-penetrated snacks market and he was able to sell his own edition of northern and western India cheese balls. At Indore, the logistics seemed to be open.
In 2002 Amit and his brother Apoorva approached a friend, Arvind Mehta, with this idea in mind. They have asked him to invest Rs 15 lakh so they can start a snacks company.
Lady Luck has smiled at Amit this time. He’d hit the nail on the head and pointed out the region’s true potential for cheese balls. Sales started to rise while operating out of a small office. In the first year, the revenues crossed Rs 22 lakh.
They went up to Rs 7 Crore in the third year. The development in the tiny bureau marked the end of his days. Prakash Snacks have been the launchpad for potato chips and Yellow Diamond brand namkeen. They launched Prataap Snacks in 2010 and soon brought under it Prakash Snacks.
The company was listed on NSE and BSE in 2017, and its IPO has been oversubscribed 47 times. Prataap Snacks is today a large-scale producer of snacks that operates nine manufacturing facilities and has a vast distribution network of 240 super stockists and over 4,100 distributors. Prataap Snacks posted total revenue of Rs 1,079.6 crore during the period April 2019 to December 2019.
Even, Pratap snacks happen to be in the right place at the right moment, very literally. It is conveniently located in Indore, in the middle of the Malwa region that produces potatoes, offering it more than just raw material. Indore is a service market, which means trucks loaded with goods arrive in town and sometimes have to return empty. Amit Kumat says Prataap Snacks will be able to use the “reverse logistics” and get a better freight cost.
The reason why Prataap Snacks approved a $30 million investment from Sequoia Capital in 2011, nearly two years after the investment firm first approached the Indian snack maker, is maybe growing competition and the capital required for growth. Amit Kumat says that Prataap Snacks chose to bring Sequoia because it assumed that the funds would help it grow faster and that the investment firm would put the Indian business listed on the stock exchange last year with systems and processes. And Sequoia did so with an interest in the company of 48.4 percent. “Sequoia has helped us prepare for the IPO over the years,” says Sumit Sharma, the Prataap Snacks Chief Financial Officer.
For now, health food might not be on the plate, but Prataap Snacks hasn’t stopped adding to their menu. It stepped out of the savory industry last year and joined the sweet snacks market with Yum-Pie, its version of the classic Jaffa cake from Britain. “India is the world’s largest buyer of the sweets. There’s no way that a sweet snack would not fit in India, “Amit Kumat says.
