Eat breakfast like a king, goes the advice, and of late some FMCG companies are making king-size plans to enter the breakfast category, diversifying from their core offerings. Recently biscuit maker Britannia entered this category with its range of ready-to-cook upmas , porridge and pohas under the Britannia Healthy Start brand. Marico has already extended the equity of its flagship Saffola brand to the breakfast cereal category, while sauce and malted drinks marketer Heinz has stretched its Complan brand with a range of muesli.

All these years the traditional breakfast eating category has been largely unorganised. While MNCs such as Kellogg's have tried to make inroads with cornflakes, it is the traditional ethnic breakfast market which is poised to grow faster. Breakfast in India is still treated as the traditional nashta and marketers are trying to dabble in varied breakfast offerings to suit the Indian palate.

Today Britannia has strategically adopted the middle path approach in terms of balancing its portfolio with a mix of both traditional and international offerings. Atul Sinha, Vice-President (New Business), Britannia Industries, says, “The ready-to-cook category is poised to grow at 25 per cent and our brand of Britannia Healthy Start will be a subset of our existing biscuit brand. It will evolve as the next big thing in Britannia's portfolio.'' As Sinha says, “Our research data shows that one out of five people in urban India misses breakfast completely everyday, while 15 per cent have an inadequate one. Our ready-to-cook breakfast mixes take just five minutes to cook. In fact, today the ready-to-cook category is growing faster than the ready-to-eat category.''

The breakfast cereal market is estimated at nearly Rs 500 crore with Kellogg's dominating it at the top end of the market. Currently the ready-to-cook (estimated at Rs 350 crore) breakfast options comprise offerings such as idlis and dosa from players such as MTR and Gits. While Britannia would be competing with most of these players, the market is still nascent and this is where it is seeking an opportunity. As Sinha says, “We saw an opportunity in the breakfast market and the challenge is to get people conscious about eating the first meal of the day. We would be positioning our brand as a healthy and tasty breakfast simple to cook. The market is still nascent and we would be competing with everybody, which could include even bread manufacturers. ''

Vinita Bali, Managing Director, Britannia, in a statement says, “Our research showed that Indian consumers were desirous of a breakfast solution that combined convenience, health and taste. The Britannia Healthy Start range has great health value as it contains no transfats, no cholesterol and no preservatives.''

In fact, a ‘healthy' breakfast is the new emerging category within the foods category. Last year there were new entrants such as Marico and Heinz which decided to enter the category with Saffola and Complan.

Riding on the heart-health proposition, Marico rolled out Saffola Oats and is pitting itself against established MNCs such as Pepsi (with Quaker Oats) and Kellogg's. Branded oats is a relatively small category estimated at Rs 80 crore, and is currently dominated by international brands with Bagrry's being the other Indian player.

Having exited the snacks category under the Saffola Zest brand in the recent past, the home-grown FMCG major continues to offer products in the foods category under the Saffola franchise. Sameer Satpathy, Executive Vice-President and Head (Marketing), Marico, claims, “ The USP of our oats brand is that it has been made specifically to suit Indian cooking in terms of taste and texture. The brand would be competitively priced than the existing oats brands in the market.”

A brand new campaign created by McCann Erickson for Saffola Oats pitted Marico against the American multinational Kellogg's, which also entered the oats category with its ‘Heart to Heart' oats and has also been trying to Indianise its offerings.

Heinz India too has decided to enter the breakfast cereal market by introducing Complan Nutri Bowl Muesli. It intends building the Complan franchise with a host of health and nutrition products.

“We are all set to leverage the strength of Complan today. There would be new categories and even within the existing categories, there would be more products under Complan,” said Sundip Shah, General Manager (New Business), Heinz India.

In the past, Complan has extended itself to the cream biscuit category and today, has a small presence, in States such as Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. It will now enter the breakfast cereal category currently dominated by brands such as Kellogg's and Bagrry's.

Jagdeep Kapoor, Managing Director, Samsika Marketing Consultants, says: “The nashta market has always been strong, yet unorganised in India all these years. It is now getting organised with players such as Britannia entering but it is the ethnic breakfast market which is likely to grow faster. As the breakfast cereal market moves into the organised sector and gets less commoditised, there will be more Indian and foreign companies making a beeline for the category.''

In fact, Britannia has realised the importance of nashta for Indian consumers and has developed a tagline to address this need with its latest need of ‘Britannia Healthy Start' which carries the message of ‘ Ghar Ke Nashte, Health Ke Vaste ' (home-made meals for the sake of health). Even Kellogg's has tried to position its K-packs at Rs 10 as an ‘evening nashta ' for kids. Now the nashta bouquet is poised to take a big leap forward. Indian consumers can now kick-start their day with breakfasts that attempt to appeal to their palates!

Related Topics