‘Fifty new products’: Diversification key to Britannia Industries’ quest to become a total foods company
Looking to fill current gaps in its portfolio, Britannia Industries Managing Director Varun Berry said: "We are looking at diversification. First diversification is going to be within the bakery area where in certain segments, we are missing. You would see in the next couple of months very hectic activity from our side."
In line with this, Britannia Industries will undertake a series of product launches.
"It would be series of launches that we are looking at over the next one year or so," Berry said.
“[The] earliest launch which we are looking at would be in next nine to ten months."
He elaborated that the segments in question included those of cereal bars and croissants, amongst others.
“[We] are going to evaluate all of this and certainly develop a strategy to move in those as well."
Valued at approximately INR 99 bn (US$ 1.36 bn), Britannia Industries is celebrating its 100-year anniversary this year.
50 new products by March 2020
Across its existing as well as new categories, Britannia Industries aims to launch roughly 50 new products by March 2020.
“Almost 50 new products would be there by the end of next financial year,” said Berry to PTI.
Britannia Industries’ biscuits sector currently makes up approximately 70% of the company. Berry predicts that the non-biscuit sector will soon reach the same value as this.
According to an analysis report by Motilal Oswal, Britannia sells around 1 billion packs of biscuits a month as of August 2018.
“We want to take this ratio to 50:50 without sacrificing the biscuits business by expansion of capacity,” said Berry.
He also added that the company will look to scout new markets in Africa, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
“We have still not identified the next destination but we are looking at a bunch of countries in Africa, and countries like Myanmar and Bangladesh. We would identify one of those and move forward in FY 2019-20.”
Britannia will be targeting one new geography every year starting with the Indian subcontinent and Africa, as per Motilal Oswal.
The company has invested INR 3.1 bn (US$ 43 mn) in research and development for new premium branded products as well as cakes and baked goods.
Berry added: “A lot of investment will go towards modernising manufacturing plants with technology. It will also help us optimise costs, which will, in turn, help us bring down price-points on some products.”
Motilal Oswal also reported that Britannia Industries is the only FMCG company in India to have an export oriented unit.
