Britannia to consolidate position as foods company

agencyfaqs! News Bureau

BANGALORE, August 30

‘Eat Healthy, Think Better.' Britannia Industries Ltd (BIL) is working hard to overhaul its ‘think Britannia, think biscuits' image. The company, as part of its strategy to consolidate its position as a full-fledged foods enterprise, plans to introduce a slew of products in the cakes and dairy segment, apart from those lined up in biscuits.

Biscuits and high protein foods have traditionally been BIL's mainstay, with biscuits contributing almost 85 per cent to its turnover. The repositioning of BIL into a ‘foods company' was set in motion in 1997 through an intensive brand building exercise. Around the same time, BIL decided to move out of unrelated businesses and focus only on the foods and beverages business, simultaneously modernizing packaging systems.

The efforts seem to be paying off. Company officials insist that their survey indicates that consumers no longer perceive BIL as a biscuits company, but a ‘premier foods company'.

As a part of the restructuring exercise, BIL has reorganized some of its regional biscuit brands into clusters based on common consumer segments. Through this exercise, BIL hopes to provide a more balanced basket of products and prices to consumers in the premium, medium and mass segments.

All through this, BIL's growth plans envisaged a strong presence in the mass market and an entry into the dairy segment. Keeping to this objective - and in a bid to meet consumer needs - BIL recently launched Good Morning Biscuits and VitaMarie Gold in the medium and Tiger Protein in the mass segment.

In the dairy segment, BIL has been really aggressive since end 1998. Late that year, the company launched tetrapacked flavoured milk brand, Zip Sip. That was followed up with the launch of Britannia cheese and butter. Company officials expect the contribution from this segment to touch 25 per cent of the company's turnover in the next couple of years.

Six months ago, Zip Sip was relaunched as Milkman. It then consolidated all the dairy products -- cheese and butter to dairy whitener -- under the Milkman umbrella brand. In cheese, BIL has managed to capture a hefty 35 per cent of the total market within a short span of two years. Company officials claim that ghee, butter, dairy whitener and milk beverages have recorded satisfactory growth.

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