Hyderabad, Sep 13 (IANS): Leading French gourmet flavourings company, Monin on Wednesday launched the work on its first manufacturing unit in India on the outskirts of Hyderabad. 

The plant with an investment of Rs 300 crore is coming up at Gunthapally village in Sangareddy district. The unit is being built on a 40-acre land.

In the first phase, the company plans to build a two lakh square feet build-up area that will house the Monin India headquarters, the all-inclusive R&D centre and a production unit.

This state-of-the-art manufacturing facility will primarily cater to the India customer base and the neighbouring South Asia markets.

Telangana Industries Minister K.T. Rama Rao, Georges Monin SAS President & Chairman Olivier Monin, Monin India Pvt Ltd Managing Director Germain Araud and French Consul General in Bengaluru, Thierry Berthelot attended the ground breaking ceremony.

Heaping praise on Telangana for its business-friendly environment, Olivier Monin said that before choosing Telangana, they visited eight different states but none of them had the same business spirit.

KTR noted that this will be a zero waste and zero pollution plant and is the first Monin plant in South Asia and eighth in the world.

The plant will create 150 direct jobs and an additional 200 indirect jobs for the local youth of Telangana.

The minister added that many companies from different parts of the world are setting up centres in the state and with the addition of Monin, Telangana's food processing ecosystem has gone a notch up.

Monin, a premium French brand created in 1912, is an innovative flavouring solutions creator. Monin currently has 7 production facilities worldwide -- two in France, two in the US, one in Russia, one in Malaysia and one in China.