Potatoes

Himalya Wants Out of Joint Venture with Simplot

LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr

Himalya International Ltd, a Gurgaon, Haryana, India-headquartered frozen and canned food processing firm, is terminating its frozen foods joint venture with J.R. Simplot Company, according to a report posted by VCCircle, an Indian business news website.

A meeting of Himalya’s board of directors was scheduled for July 30 to ratify the termination of its relationship with Boise, Idaho, USA-headquartered Simplot and discuss the effects and way forward to recover losses through the dispute resolution mechanism.

himalaya logoHimalya International and Simplot formed a 50-50 joint venture in 2011. Doing business as Himalya-Simplot Pvt. Ltd, it was set up to market appetizers and other food products. Reportedly both companies initially invested $5 million in the enterprise, anticipating that the enterprise would be generating $50 million by 2014.

However, reported VCCircle, the sales goal has not been achieved, “and the exclusivity clause in the joint venture meant the Indian partner could not independently sell the products which affected the business – especially the frozen appetizers unit.”

Himalya has reportedly been looking to dissolve its relationship with Simplot for more than a year in order to re-launch its products at retail chain stores and market them to the growing foodservice segment in India.

Himalya’s product line ranges from frozen french fries and baby potatoes to vegetable and mushroom nuggets, pizza, burgers, ready-to-eat meals, snacks, sweets and other products.

Simplot, ranked as one of the largest privately held food and agribusiness companies in the USA, is major supplier of frozen french fries and appetizers to quick service restaurants and other foodservice channels.