Parle to launch 3 more products under Indian snacks category
Biscuits and confectionery firm Parle Products Pvt Ltd plans to launch three new variants under its traditional Indian snacks category in the next financial year even as it throws its might behind consolidating market share in the premium biscuits segment.
Parle plans to raise contribution from the snacks and confectionery segments to 20% from 15% at present by the end of next fiscal, said Parle’s category heads Krishna Rao and Mayank Shah.
The consumer goods firm currently sells four different types of snacks: potato chips under its Parle’s Wafers brand, a twisty snack called Full Toss, nacho chips under the name Mexitos, and traditional Indian namkeens called Parle Namkeen. It will rebrand Namkeen as Chatkeens over the next three or four months, and will launch three new variants: cornflakes mixture, dalmoth and Punjabi Tadka between March and April.
Snacks make up just 3% of Parle’s overall business, which is dominated by biscuits — including Parle G and Krackjack brands — that account for about 85% of total revenue. The remaining 12% of the business comes from confectionery brands, including Eclairs, Melody, Mango Bite, Kismi and Poppins.
Still, snacks and confectionery are the fastest-growing categories, according to Krishna Rao who looks after both portfolios. He is looking to increase contribution from both to a total of 20% in the next financial year, and is targeting a revenue of R1,000 crore from snacks by 2020.
“The rebranding exercise is on the packaging front,” Rao said.
“Snacking is growing. If you look at the US, Europe, Japan or even China, the amount of snacking options available to people in those markets is huge. Indian firms have been very timid. So anybody who is bringing in more variety, more categories into it, I think they are doing the right thing,” said Harminder Sahni, founder and managing director at consulting firm Wazir Advisors.
Last year, Parle launched five new confectionery brands priced at ₹1— Spicy Kaccha Mango Bite, Juicy Mango Bite, Cafechino, Cremax Eclairs and Melody Chocomel Eclairs. Going forward too, the focus is on launching new confectionery priced at ₹1 rather than the older 50 paise as earlier.
In biscuits, Parle has strong presence in the mass and popular price segments, including biscuits that cost less than ₹100 per kg and between ₹100 and ₹200 respectively, according to Shah. The focus now is to raise market share in the premium segment, or biscuits priced above ₹200 per kg.
Rivals in the premium end include Britannia Industries (NutriChoice), ITC (Dark Fantasy) and Mondelez India Foods Pvt. Ltd (Oreo).