Modern Food Industries


Modern Food Industries Ltd was set up in 1965 as Modern Bakeries Limited situated at Kazhikundram, Taramani, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was set up under the Colombo plan. It got its present name in 1982. MFIL had bread manufacturing units in 13 cities spread across India. MFIL had also marketed fruit juice concentrate under brand name Rasika in Delhi. MFIL also produced aerated soft drinks under the brand Double Seven. MFIL was a wholly owned Central Government-owned PSU. It was taken over by Hindustan Lever Limited in January 2000. This was the first privatisation of public sector unit by the government of India. Modern Foods had over 40% of the bread market in India.
HUL was the sole bidder for Modern Foods. It paid Rs 10.5 million, as per the valuation exercise undertaken by its valuer ICICI, for 74% of the shares. Later the government exercised its put option to sell the remaining 26% to HUL for Rs 4.4 million in November 2002. In 2006, HUL merged MFIL with itself. Senior HUL officials said the acquisition was a complete misfit with the HUL culture and systems. The company had admitted that the acquisition was a mistake on account of improper due diligence.
In 2001, HUL referred MFIL to Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction. Subsequently HUL decided to sell the company to Singapore based Everstone Capital. In April 2016 Modern changed hands again, this time to Everstone Capital. Today the company is called Modern Foods Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. and is 100% owned by Everstone Capital.