The AV Thomas group has interests in plantations, tea, spices, leather, medical devices and bio- technology. The group has successful JVs/ tie ups with international Organisations such as McCormick, Teleflex etc. The group has an annual turn over of over Rs. 950 crores and is headquartered in Chennai. It is now diversifying into packaged food retailing, in collaboration with Sweden based Gavia India AB. The 50:50 JV intends to launch RTC/RTE specialty packaged foods targeted at SEC A households. Test Marketing, Consumer research etc have been completed satisfactorily and sourcing tie ups are getting finalised. The JV aims to be the first to introduce the specialty packaged foods in India; it is a new category here.