hat do Amrit Banaspati, Indo Rama Synthetics and Pidilite Industries have in common? Well, all of them were bitten by the unrelated diversification bug in the last one year. After the Rs 600-crore food processing and packaging company, Amrit Banaspati, marked its foray into language education (it has been appointed master franchisee by Inlingua International), the Rs 2,300-crore polyester major, Indo Rama Synthetics, said it will enter food and grocery retailing.


Now Pidilite Industries has entered a totally new market with snack- food brand, Chikkers. For a company whose mainstay is the consumer and industrial adhesives and sealants business, a foray into the snack-food market may seem totally improbable to the outsider; but for the Rs 756-crore company the move "is in tandem with its strategy to grow consumer and bazaar products".
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