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The Chauhan family-owned Parle Products is re-entering the premium glucose category after nearly a decade launching the Parle Gold brand.
It had launched Parle G-Magix with variants such as chocolate and cashew in 2002 to compete with Britannia's mass Tiger brand. But consumers were unwilling to accept the idea of a ‘flavoured' glucose brand at that point of time. Subsequently in 2005 Parle G spun off the Magix suffix as a separate brand in the ‘affordable cookie' segment.
This time it is enhancing its existing Parle G brand with a variant called Parle Gold which is bigger in size and has a richer formulation and is priced at a premium (Rs 10 for 100 gms).
According to Mr. Mayank Shah, Group Product Manager, Parle Products, “Glucose biscuits is a staple and functional category today. At the same time there are consumers who do not want a plain vanilla product and would like to move to better taste and formulation within the category.”
To hold on to such consumers, Mr Shah says, the company has created a premium variant – and claims it is the only company to have such a variant in the glucose category.
Parle G has continued to be the single mass brand in Parle's portfolio all these years with an 80 per cent share in the glucose category.
Today the 83-year-old largest biscuit manufacturer in the country believes in plugging the gaps in its biscuit portfolio. While it has extended itself in the Rs 4,500-crore glucose category from mass to premium offerings, it has moved in the reverse order in the Rs 2,500 crore cookie segment.
With its new cookie offering ‘Happy Happy', it has launched an affordable variant in this category.
“Since we already had premium cookie brands such as Hide & Seek and Milano, we decided to plug the gaps in the cookie segment with a mass brand such as Happy Happy with a chocolate chip cookie,” says Mr. Shah.
In fact, the cookie segment (biscuits fortified with nuts and chocolates) is growing faster today at nearly 20 per cent while the glucose segment has slowed down with just 15 per cent growth rate. Today Happy Happy is also the only brand Parle is advertising during the IPL as it has the onus of establishing the new brand.
purvita@thehindu.co.in
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