Parle to launch new snacks, targets 25% mkt share

Biscuits manufacturer Parle Products, which entered the snacks business four years ago, will launch five new ‘Namkeen’ products within a year to garner 25% of the Rs 8,000 crore market.

"We will launch various products in all the categories under snacks like traditional ‘namkeen’ and wafers to increase our market share to 20-25% within the next two years," B Krishna Rao, Group Product Manager of Parle Products, told PTI here.

The company has got positive response after the test phase launch of the new products in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra this month.

"We are taking lessons from these test launches. There are some distribution related issues. The competition is also not easy. But the response has been fairly good. By the end of FY13 we will launch it nationally," he said.

At present, the Mumbai-based company has a small market share of 8% in the snacks segment which is dominated by big players like PepsiCo Frito-Lay, ITC and Haldiram’s.

It has ‘Full Toss’ to compete with PepsiCo-owned brand Kurkure and also has a presence in the wafers market.