Cookie Man opens first store in Gujarat

Ahmedabad, May 9 (UNI) Australian Foods (I) Pvt Ltd, makers of Cookie Man cookies, opened its first store in Gujarat here today.

Addressing mediapersons, Mr Pattabhi Rama Rao, president, Australian Foods India, said Cookie Man sells a diverse line of fresh baked Australian cookies all over the world. In India it is a joint venture, while in other parts of the world it is franchisee based.

''Cookie Man India (CMI), is the only company in the world to have a 53 product varieties. CMI is planning to add one more store in Vadodara in this financial year while two more stores would be added in Surat and Anand in the next financial year,'' Mr Rao said.

Though the dough is made in Chennai, it is supplied to all centres in the country in frozen condition where the centre makes the cookies. All the cookies are 100 per cent eggless, Mr Rao said.

The parent Australian company has altogether 40 franchisees spread across 20 countries and there are 45 stores in Australia. ''In India we are working toward 75 franchisees in the next five years, which means around 300 Cookie Man stores'', Mr Rao said.

''When we set up our first store in Chennai in 2000 we had in the first year a revenue of Rs 65 lakhs. Presently our revenue is Rs 15 crore and we expect it to reach Rs 300 crore in next five years,'' Mr Rao said.

Cookie Man has also joined hands with CRY (Child Rights and You) to launch Cookie Man CRY gift boxes in order to build awareness on the ''right to education'' and other programmes supported by CRY, Mr Rao said. The Cookie Man-CRY boxes will contribute 15 per cent from the sale to CRY's programmes across the country, he added.

UNI