Wipro Consumer and the Murugappa Group are the final bidders for Kerala's Double Horse brand, with the deal valued around ₹500 crore. Manjilas Food Tech has hired EY to advise on the sale.
The fight for Kerala's Double Horse brand has two bidders left. Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting and the Murugappa Group are both in talks to buy the packaged foods business from Manjilas Food Tech Pvt. Ltd, two people familiar with the process said. The deal is expected to be valued at around ₹ 500 crore.
Manjilas has hired EY to run the sale, the people said, asking not to be named because the process is private. Discussions are with a shortlisted set of bidders. A final decision has not been made yet, one of the people added.
Double Horse is among Kerala's oldest packaged foods companies, founded in 1959. Its product line runs from breakfast mixes and rice powders to spices, ready-to-cook food and pickles. It competes with Eastern, Nirapara, Brahmins, Manna, Elite Foods, ID Fresh and Aachi across different categories.
A Manjilas spokesperson said the company is "open to exploring strategic opportunities that can strengthen our business and accelerate growth," declining to comment on the sale. The company reported ₹ 341.5 crore in revenue for FY25, up 8% from a year earlier. Net profit swung to a loss of ₹ 4 crore from a ₹ 90 lakh profit the prior year.
Wipro Consumer declined to comment. EID Parry India Ltd, the Murugappa Group's listed food and agribusiness company, said it "continuously evaluates various strategic opportunities in the ordinary course of business for growth and expansion" and that there is no event or information requiring mandatory disclosure so far. EY did not respond to queries.
Wipro Consumer is the more aggressive acquirer of the two. On Thursday it agreed to buy TTK Healthcare's Eva and Good Home brands for ₹ 256 crore. Earlier in the week it agreed to acquire Philippine personal care company S Brands Consumer Care Inc. If the Double Horse deal closes, it would mark Wipro Consumer's 18th acquisition globally.
Wipro Consumer CEO Kumar Chander said after the TTK deal that his company plans to "double down" on food in India, calling it a key growth area. "If there are good acquisitions that make sense for us, then this will also be considered in our strategy," he said. Chander also said the company has invested more than $1 billion across its acquisitions and that every deal has grown in both revenue and profitability.
Wipro Consumer entered packaged foods in December 2022 by acquiring Nirapara from KKR Group companies. It added the Brahmins brand and related intellectual property in May 2023 for ₹ 190 crore, plus manufacturing assets for about ₹ 27.7 crore.
EID Parry sells Parry's-branded sugar, packaged rice, millets, dals and sweeteners. In FY26 it reported consolidated revenue of ₹ 38,534 crore, up 21.9% year-on-year. Net profit fell 22.1% to ₹ 1,380 crore.
Large consumer companies have been buying existing regional brands rather than building new ones. In 2020, Norway's Orkla acquired a majority stake in Kerala-based Eastern Condiments before buying out minority shareholders. Reliance Consumer Products entered the category by acquiring Southern Health Foods, owner of the Manna brand.
India's packaged food market was valued at ₹ 10.18 trillion in FY24 and is expected to expand to ₹ 17.12 trillion by FY29, according to Gurugram-based consulting firm Technopak. Urbanization and changing consumption patterns are driving the growth.
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