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Acquisition bolsters Cargill’s consumer brand portfolio and expands market reach in India

Gurgaon - 10 December, 2012 - Cargill announced that it signed an agreement with Wipro Ltd. to acquire its flagship brand Sunflower Vanaspati, being marketed in the hard fats category (Vanaspati). Sunflower Vanaspati is a premium brand in state of Maharashtra, India. The scope of the acquisition is limited to the product brand only.

This acquisition strengthens Cargill’s existing portfolio of leading edible oil and vanaspati brands and also expands its market reach in India’s palm oil and its derivaties including vanaspati market. Apart from marketing its edible oil portfolio that includes brands such as Nature Fresh, Sweekar and Gemini, Cargill already locally produces and markets Vanaspati under its brands Rath, NatureFresh Purita and, Gemini.

"Acquiring Sunflower Vanaspati underscores Cargill's long-term commitment to growing our consumer food business in India. It is an excellent fit with our existing strong brand portfolio through which we serve a significant consumer base across the country,” said Siraj Chaudhry, Chairman Cargill India.

“Sunflower Vanaspati is an iconic and trusted name associated with cooking delicious food, purity and goodness since 1949. It has since been positioned `as next to Desi Ghee’ in the household segment. We will build on its strong brand heritage and consumers will benefit from Cargill's commitment to quality, food safety, innovation and value. We will also leverage on our strong distribution network to expand to other markets,” added Chaudhry.

 

 

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About Cargill

Cargill is an international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products and services. Founded in 1865, the privately held company employs 142,000 people in 65 countries. Cargill helps customers succeed through collaboration and innovation, and is committed to applying its global knowledge and experience to help meet economic, environmental and social challenges wherever it does business.

About Cargill in India

Cargill’s operations in India started in 1987. It has businesses in refined oils, food ingredients, grain and oilseeds, sugar, cotton, animal feed, trade structured finance and operate a non banking financial company. Cargill markets leading consumer brands of edible oils such as NatureFresh, Gemini and Sweekar and Rath brand of hydrogenated fats in India. Cargill also markets NatureFresh brand of packaged wheat flour. It employs more than 2,000 employees working across offices and plants and a network of warehouses and depots.

Cargill Foods India (CFI) processes, refines and markets a wide range of both indigenous and imported edible oils, fats and blends to the food industry and also serves household consumers with branded and vitamin-fortified edible oils. It offers high quality food ingredients to the growing needs of food manufacturers and the food service industry. CFI owns and operates three edible oil refineries located at Paradeep (Odisha), Kandla (Gujarat) and Kurkumbh (Maharashtra) which comply with world-class international quality assurance and food safety standards including HACCP and FSSC 22000.