National Foods to set up fifth plant in Faisalabad.

KARACHI -- National Foods Ltd is setting up its fifth plant in the M4 Industrial City of Faisalabad, said a company official on Tuesday.

Briefing a group of journalists at the Port Qasim factory of the manufacturer of convenience-based food products, the official said the 30-acre Faisalabad plant will be the company's biggest production facility upon its completion by the end of 2022.

Currently, the company operates three plants in Karachi's Port Qasim, SITE and Nooriabad industrial estates and one plant in Gujranwala. He didn't share the size of the investment.

The company posted an unconsolidated profit of Rs725 million for January-March, up 39.3 per cent from a year ago. Its quarterly sales grew 23.4pc to Rs8.4 billion.

Even though the company is one of the major Pakistani exporters of recipe mixes, a sharp devaluation of the local currency against the dollar in recent quarters has left a negative impact on the earnings growth, the official said.

As much as 80 per cent of raw materials used in the company's 110 products - such as recipe mixes, pickles and spices - are imported. 'There're no imports of ingredients from India as of now,' he said, adding that an improvement...