India is now the fastest growing market across all countries for German packaged foods maker Dr. Oetker, said Georg Parsbo, member of the international management board and leading global sales and human resources roles at the company.

Globally, the family-owned Dr. Oetker which makes mayonnaise, spreads and cakes, grew by 7.1% last year while its India unit reported 25% growth in Indian currency. “Across all our global markets, India was the No 1 country in turnover growth percentage,” Parsbo, on a recent India visit, told ET in an interview.

In calendar year 2022, India reported a turnover of Rs 535 crore, and is now the largest country across the Africa, Asia and Australia regions, according to the company.

Last year in October, India became the regional hub for South Asia and Southeast Asia. Speaking about the Indian market, Oliver Mirza, Dr. Oetker’s managing director and chief executive, India and South Asia, said: “Last year, while retail sales grew in single digits, our food services grew in triple digits. We are stepping up our focus with quick service restaurant chains through exclusive collaborations.”

In the third quarter of 2021, the foods maker had acquired bakery start-up Spycy Foods which makes Kuppies desserts, its second buy-out in India after it acquired FunFoods over a decade back for Rs 110 crore.

Parsbo said the company will continue to explore acquisitions to fuel growth in India, however adding that some of the acquisitions here “are expensive”.

“Markets like Europe are saturated and more about consolidation. For real growth, we need to go places where growth is actually happening like India – which we believe will be the biggest contributor to sales in the next five years for retail growth,” Parsbo said. He added that the growth could be organic or through acquisitions.