Surat-based FMCG start-up Harley Foods is in talks with the RP Sanjiv Goenka Group for a stake sale which will help the latter to make an entry into the premium snacks range.

“The RP-Sanjiv Goenka is planning to invest ₹600 crore in snack foods and we are in talks to have them spend ₹20 crore with a stake in our start-up. We will help them enter the premium snacking category since we have the same categories in our portfolio,” said Soumiik Mitra, CMD, Harley Foods.

Mitra has a FMCG background, having worked with companies like Rasna and Prataap Snacks before he started Harley Foods.

The less than two-year-old start-up had been scouting funds from PE firms, but now that the market has dried up in terms of fund raising, it has decided to resort to FMCG companies to raise money for its venture.

“We are already negotiating with big FMCG companies based in Kolkata but talks with the RP Sanjiv Goenka is in an advanced stage as they have already shown interest in acquiring packaged food companies. We are developing new product categories which is going to be their future food categories,’’ he added.

Early this year, the RP-Sanjiv Goenka made its FMCG foray with a new company under the name of Guiltfree Industries.

During the launch of Guiltfree Industries, the Chairman of the Group, Sanjiv Goenka, had said the it was already in talks with several food companies for acquisitions mostly for getting better distribution, infrastructure for manufacturing and also brands in some cases.

Guiltfree Industries will sell both Indian and western packaged snacks under the ‘Too Yumm’ brand soon.

Harley Foods has been building its distribution across 14 States with 1,000 distributors reaching out to three lakh retail outlets.

With a turnover of ₹40 crore, Harley Foods has also been expanding its product range to include traditional sweets, confectionery, healthy snacks such as corn and nacho chips and juices.

Apart from Harley Foods, there are other snack companies in Gujarat which the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group has been eyeing.

The Rajkot-based Apricot Foods, which makes the Evita brand of snacks, is also being targeted as a potential company which could aid the group’s entry into the FMCG segment. But unlike Harley Foods, Apricot Foods is a 10-year-old FMCG company with a turnover of ₹250 crore.