CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Industries Minister T R B Rajaa on Wednesday announced that fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) major Reliance Consumer Products Ltd (RCPL) will set up a Rs 1,156-crore integrated food and FMCG manufacturing facility in Thoothukudi district, signalling the conglomerate’s next major investment in the state.
The 60-acre facility, coming up at SIPCOT’s Allikulam Industrial Park, will produce packaged snacks, biscuits, spices and wheat flour, and is expected to create around 2,000 jobs over the next five years, he said in a social media post.
Rajaa said the project reflected Tamil Nadu’s success in attracting marquee national FMCG players under Chief Minister M K Stalin’s “Dravidian model” of governance. The state has been positioning itself as a manufacturing and logistics hub for food and FMCG, with Thoothukudi emerging as a key industrial cluster in southern Tamil Nadu.
People familiar with the development said RCPL’s investment is part of the Rs 40,000-crore plan announced by Isha Ambani, director of Reliance Retail, at the company’s 48th annual general meeting on August 29. Isha had said RCPL would set up a network of integrated food parks featuring AI-driven automation, robotics and sustainable technologies.
Reliance has already committed Rs 768 crore for its first food park in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district, and signed an MoU with Maharashtra for a facility in Nagpur. The Thoothukudi project, sources said, strengthens a wave of FMCG manufacturing growth in Tamil Nadu.
RCPL officials have conducted a land survey at Allikulam, with site-level processes under way. Thoothukudi was chosen for its strategic location, which would allow the company to serve other southern markets efficiently, the sources added.
The investment has further strengthened Thoothukudi as a strategic investment destination with Vietnamese car manufacturer VinFast selecting the city for manufacturing its electric vehicles.
The city’s port is poised to become a global hub for shipbuilding, after signing two “ultra mega” investment agreements worth a combined Rs 30,000 crore to set up greenfield commercial shipyards.
The state is also planning to come up with a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for a Space Vehicle Common Technical Facility Centre in Thoothukudi, part of the state’s push to position itself as hub of India’s commercial space sector.