Financial Times

Munchee finally chews India's Bakeman
Ending a six-month court battle, Ceylon Biscuits Ltd (CBL) has physically acquired the assets of Bakeman's Industries -- ensuring its giant leap into the Indian market and aims to be number one there.

The previous owners went to courts against CBL, challenging the company attaining the defunct Bakeman's on the grounds that the assets were sold cheap. The court gave the former owners 30 days to outbid CBL, but they were unable to do so. Even though several extensions were given afterwards, they were still unable to match the bid.

CBL Chairman Mineka Wickremesinghe said on March 2, the Delhi High Court instructed financial institution Sicom to hand over assets of Bakeman's Industries to CBL. The Judge, in his final order had said that the previous owners had " failed miserably" despite numerous occasions given to them to bid better than CBL.

Wickremesinghe said that there are many things to be done before they can start work at the factory, which has been closed for almost 2 1/2 years. Recruiting new staff, getting the premises cleared, registering as a new company, etc, will take around four to six months and then the company will go ahead with production. The new factory will produce biscuits and chocolates mainly for the Indian market. The biscuits will be marketed under the 'Munchee' brand name and the chocolates under 'Ritzbury'. Bakeman's was the third largest biscuit company in India with around 11 percent of the market share. CBL's initial target is to match this and then move on to becoming number one in time in the Indian market, he said.

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