Brands
Why Adani Wilmar wants to swallow Tops brand owner GD Foods
MUMBAI: Packaged foods giant Adani Wilmar Limited (AWL) has developed an appetite for acquisitions, the latest one being for GD Foods Manufacturing, a privately held maker of kitchen foods and ingredients.
It informed the Bombay stock exchange through a regulatory filing today of its plans to acquire the company which is the maker of the popular Tops brand of sauces, pickles and other food products. It informed the bourse that it has signed a share purchase agreement (SPA) to acquire 80 per cent of its equity capital at a price per share based on an enterprise valuation of Rs 603 crore.
The acquisition marks a significant step in AWL’s strategy to diversify its product portfolio beyond edible oils into higher-margin food categories.
The deal aligns perfectly with AWL’s ambition to strengthen its position in the branded foods segment. GD Foods, with its Tops brand, generated Rs 386 crore in revenue for FY24, growing at an impressive 15 per cent CAGR over the past three years. The company offers more than 80 products across eight plus categories and has established a strong presence in north and central India with over 150,000 retail touchpoints spanning 15 plus states.
Key synergies from the acquisition include:
* AWL will significantly enrich its offering with high gross-margin products while maintaining focus on kitchen essentials.
* The acquisition brings another strong brand to AWL’s kitchen essentials category.
* GD Foods adds new product categories with limited competition from national players, particularly in sauces where Tops is the No 1 brand in culinary sauces and No 3 in tomato ketchup in North India.
AWL plans to unlock value through its robust sales and distribution network. Its deep partnerships with modern retail channels, including quick-commerce platforms, will benefit the Tops brand. The acquisition will expand Tops’ reach into rural markets using AWL’s established infrastructure, says the latter.
North India, which is Tops’ core market, is also AWL’s strongest region, creating immediate synergies. AWL will leverage its pan-India presence to introduce select Tops products to new markets The combined entity aims to capitalise on AWL’s strong partnerships with organised retailers.
AWL will initially acquire 80 per cent of shares from existing promoters, with the remaining 20 per cent to be acquired in phases over the next three years at a pricing formula agreed upon in the SPA. The existing promoters will continue to support the business transition, and GD Foods will operate as a separate entity. The acquisition will be funded through internal accruals and IPO proceeds (if applicable), with completion targeted within 60 days, subject to customary closing conditions, said AWL.
The deal comes as India’s packaged foods market is showing tremendous growth potential, with significant headroom for branded products to gain market share from the unorganised sector.
* Edible Oils: Rs 2.0 lakh crore market with 75 per cent branded product penetration
* Wheat: Rs 1.5 lakh crore market with only 12 per cent branded product penetration
* Rice: Rs 2.1 lakh crore market with just 11 per cent branded product penetration
* Pulses & Besan: Rs 1.2 lakh crore market with merely 5 per cent branded product penetration
* Sugar: Rs 0.6 lakh crore market with 6 per cent branded product penetration
* Spices: Rs 1.4 lakh crore market with 18 per cent branded product penetration
For both companies, this strategic move represents an opportunity to combine complementary strengths: AWL’s manufacturing excellence, widespread distribution network and financial might paired with Tops’ strong brand equity, innovative product range and market leadership in specific categories. 
AWL currently has impressive scale with:
* Packaged staple foods revenue of approximately Rs 37,000 crore (as of Dec’24).
* Household reach of 121 million
* 2.1 million retail touchpoints
* Edible oil division with last twelve months (LTM) Dec’24 revenue of Rs 45,208 crore.
* Food & FMCG division with LTM Dec’24 revenue of Rs 6,150 crore.
* Industry essentials division with LTM Dec’24 revenue of Rs 7,369 crore.
Tops brings several valuable assets to the table:
* Diverse portfolio spanning sauces, condiments, meal preparation items, and cooking aids
* Strong presence in key North Indian markets including Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Bihar, Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Rajasthan
KPMG India Corporate Finance is serving as exclusive financial advisor to AWL with PricewaterhouseCoopers Services LLP and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas conducting due diligence and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas providing legal counsel.
AWL has demonstrated capability in scaling acquired brands. Amongst its notable successes figure the launch of Alife Soap in 2020 which crossed Rs 100 plus crore in sales within two years. The acquisition of Kohinoor in May 2022 saw it generating Rs 350 plus crore in sales within 18 months. The Hotels, Retail and Catering (HoReCa) team established in Q1 FY23 generated Rs 600 plus crore in sales within two years.
With that kind of a track record, the acquisition can only be a good and taste-filled recipe for success.
Brands
IICT partners with Gativedhi to bring studio production tools to students
New MoU lets students explore AI-driven production pipelines for AVGC-XR
MUMBAI: The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) has teamed up with Gativedhi Technologies to give students a front-row seat to modern studio production. The collaboration will integrate Gativedhi’s AI-powered production intelligence platform, Shotrack, into academic programmes, letting students experience the workflow systems used by animation, VFX and gaming studios.
Under the MoU, faculty, students and researchers will get hands-on access to Shotrack through beta programmes, pilot deployments and academic evaluations. This will allow them to explore simulated production pipelines, understand asset management, track tasks and monitor schedules, essentially seeing how complex projects come together behind the scenes.
Shotrack is designed to tackle a key industry challenge: when multiple studios work on the same project, differing internal systems often create bottlenecks, slow approvals and complicate version control. The platform provides a unified production environment, enabling smoother collaboration across distributed teams while generating operational insights and predictive analytics to optimise crew allocation, forecast schedule risks and manage costs.
The collaboration also opens doors to Gativedhi’s wider ecosystem. Upcoming tools include StudioTrack, for studio operations management covering budgeting, recruitment and IT infrastructure, and WorkTrack, which measures workflow efficiency and team productivity across industries.
IICT plans to embed these tools into programmes covering animation pipelines, VFX workflows, gaming production and media project management. Students will also benefit from guest lectures, masterclasses, workshops, internships and research projects that connect academic learning with real-world studio practices.
IICT CEO Vishwas Deoskar, said the partnership provides “An environment where production pipeline tools can be explored, tested and refined while students gain insight into how large-scale productions are organised.”
Gativedhi Technologies founder & CEO Senthil Kumar added, “This collaboration introduces students to real-world studio management tools and helps us improve our platform with academic feedback.”
With Shotrack in classrooms, India’s future animators, VFX artists and gaming producers will get a taste of studio life long before they step into one.
