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Dinesh Foods new foray

MANGALORE: Dinesh Foods, an offshoot of Dinesh Beedis, has entered the Mangalore and Udupi markets with its coconut milk, pickles, curry powders and fruit products.

Although beedis still remain the group's core business, it is seriously trying to gain a foothold in various other sectors such as manufacturing umbrellas and even setting up a training centre for those aspiring to reap the benefits of information techno logy.

With the beedi industry in a quandary now due to the various changes in the macro-economic scenario the Dinesh group feels that the only way to survive is to diversify.

``The beedi industry,''; according to the Chairman, Mr C.V. Kunhiraman, ``is in its last legs''. While in 1991, Dinesh Beedis manufactured 860 crore beedis, by 2000 it had dropped to 560 crore.

Dinesh Foods along with Dinesh Umbrella and Dinesh Information Technology Systems, which have all been functioning since 1998, are subsidiaries of the Kerala Dinesh Beedi Workers' Central Co-operative Society. -- Our Bureau