Future Group has tied up with rice millers across the country to source products for its commodity staples brand Ektaa. The brand, primarily catering to food products, will give customers more options to choose from their culture specific staples and food items.

The company has initially rolled out rice variants from various regions like Maharashtra, Kerala and West Bengal. Eventually, the company plans to launch products in categories like wheat, cereals and papad in the next one year.

To produce the locally relevant offerings, the group is finalising tie-ups with self-help groups and other non-governmental organisations to supply locally made products for sale at their stores. “Future Agrovet, our subsidiary company, has tied up with millers across the country to source products for Ektaa brand,” Devendra Chawla, head, private brands business, Future Group, said.

Ektaa is positioned to address the diversity that arises with changing food preferences every 100 km. “The brand will have its strong positioning on the geography-community-food-people platform,” Chawla said.

Ektaa brand will also see a series of product launches like wheat, regional spices, pickles, papads, etc in phases, giving customers a large basket of community foods to choose from across our formats.

A year back, the group’s promoter Kishore Biyani told Financial Chronicle that the brand would have nearly 35 stock keeping units (SKUs) catering to different communities. “We plan to take the number of SKUs to 100 soon,” he had said.

“We want to be seen as Marwari for the Marwaris, Bengali for Bengalis, by understanding the nuances of the communities in the catchment area of our stores and being seen as part of the community,” Ashni Biyani, director, Future Ideas, and Kishore Biyani’s daughter had told FC.

By providing local delicacies, Big Bazaar hopes to attract non-homogenous customers. “We want to apply our learning from the multi-disciplinary team studies to food first and then, depending on the response, will apply it to other merchandise categories,” she said.

“This is a huge untapped area. As our base grows the sales will also increase,” Chawla said.