Nestle India gears up to launch more Maggi variants

New Delhi: A month after Nestle India relaunched Maggi noodles in the Indian market, the company on Monday said it will launch other variants of the brand such as oats noodles and cup noodles in 3-4 months.

"We will launch other variants of Maggi noodles such as oats noodles, aata noodles and cup noodles in three to four months," Nestle India CMD Suresh Narayanan told PTI on the sidelines of CII national FMCG summit 2015.

The company relaunched Maggi masala noodles on November 9, five months after it was banned by the FSSAI following a Bombay High Court order. Last week Supreme Court had ordered re-testing of Maggi noodles by an accredited laboratory at Mysore and not in Chennai as sought by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission while staying the proceedings in connection with the government's Rs 640 crore law suit against the company that is pending with the apex consumer body.

When asked about the apex court order, Narayanan said, "The matter is subjudice, samples are being sent to to CFTRI Mysore, so I don't want to comment on it but I would say that it is question of trust and credibility of Nestle organisation.

"We have performed all due diligence before coming back into the market."

On sales of Maggi after its re-launch, he said Nestle has sold 50-60 million packs of Maggi noodles so far after against 300-400 million units it used to sell in full year before crisis.

When asked the company is expected reach pre-crisis level sales, Narayanan said: "Can't say when Maggi sales will reach pre-crisis level. We are ramping up productions at all our five plants and also ensure we each all out distributors."

Before the ban, Maggi noodles were distributed through 1,500 distributors across country. "Right now we are selling through 1,000 distributors, we are ramping up our distribution network and we plan to reach all 1,500 distributors soon," he added.