Britannia bakes plan to up share

bangalore: the rs 1,300-crore britannia industries is putting in place a multi-pronged action plan to beef up its market share, with a focus on the rural market. it plans to offer at least one new variant every quarter this year while not launching any new brands. it is considering new flavours in brands like bourbon which has not seen much action for long, and is planning more varieties in maska chaska.a choice of pack sizes from tiny to family will also be offered for stronger brands. britannia’s goal is to increase market share in rural india with variants like the just-launched tiger chai biskoot, tailored for these markets in terms of product and price, nikhil sen, chief operating officer of britannia, told the times of india. “small rs 1-2, paanwaala packs are retailed in tiger (called tikis), in 50:50, bourbon and milk bikis and will be extended to other variants as well, like maska chaska,’’ he added. on the other hand, larger 200, 300 and 400 gm packs, available in tiger, chai biskoot, marie gold and some variants of good day, will be extended across variants like maska chaska, bourbon, and some cream treat flavours. ‘‘family packs are a recent development in value-added offerings from the company. this is for a variant that has touched a large enough base to justify a big money-saver pack. family packs address the in-home, depth consumption segment while the rs 1 packs cater to the impulse buyer who looks for hunger appeasement,’’ he said. britannia is planning big in bread. this business had shown a degrowth of 9.4 per cent in volume terms from 1999-2000 to 2000-01 and is seeing tough competition from hll post-acquisition of modern foods. sen said britannia bread is present in six cities in north and south india but the company has decided to focus only on markets with potential. bread is seen as a big carrier of the britannia brand, he said.