 "New categories beckon for Britannia; innovation quotient to increase")
Food major Britannia Industries is contemplating an entry back into categories like salted snacks and breakfast as the company looks to expand its presence beyond bakery and dairy. The move comes as rivals such as Nestle, ITC, Parle Products and Mondelez are aggressively expanding their portfolios.
Manjunath Desai, vice-president, strategy and business development, Britannia, said that the company was looking at various options in these categories and that it had set milestones in this regard.
“We are working on them (products in breakfast and salted snacks) and it may not be launched in this financial year. There are learnings that we have from the past as well as our understanding of the market now. All of this will get into the new products to ensure it appeals a wider set of consumers," Desai said.
Around five years ago, Britannia forayed into the breakfast space with a range of ready-to-cook breakfast mixes in upmas, pohas, porridges and oats. This was subsequently discontinued as the company chose to focus on its core
categories. Salted snacks, on the other hand, was tried and tested by Britannia a few times in the past. The attempts were with brands such as Time Pass, 50:50 and Nutrichoice. But these products also met with lukewarm success.
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"Snacks as a category is tough to crack as you have to get the flavour profile and ingredients right given that virtually everybody is innovating there. Understanding what consumers want and where exactly is the gap that one can fill is key to success," Jagdeep Kapoor, chairman & managing director, Samsika Marketing Consultants, says.
Britannia's 2015-16 annual report says that the company is also looking at categories such as chocolates and ready-to-eat food segments, but Desai does not elaborate on these plans. The report adds that the company would evaluate each one of these categories carefully before selecting a few for entry.
The company is also working on increasing its innovation pipeline in bakery and dairy, its two existing categories, where the competition from local and international rivals has only been growing. Britannia derives around 90-95% of its revenue from bakery which includes biscuits, bread, cake and rusks. The balance comes from dairy.
fhThe company just launched a biscuit and cake hybrid called Cake Biscotti, which is being rolled out across the country.
A few months ago, it test-marketed a chocolate bar on a biscuit in Bengaluru, which will be taken to other towns and cities in the coming months.
"Cake and rusks is another area where we will focus on innovation," Desai says. The company is also aggressively working on "new formats" in dairy, he adds.
Britannia's MD Varun Berry has indicated in the past that the company is working on increasing its dairy business. A timeline though has not been specified for this.
