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Premium cookie maker Unibic Foods India has introduced a new production line to its manufacturing facility in Bengaluru, which will take its capacity up by 20 per cent to 100 tonnes a day. The company has invested ₹12 crore in the new line which is imported from Laser in Italy, and is its fifth production line.
With plans to augment its production line every 12-18 months, the company will invest over ₹50 crore in capex in the next five years.
“Until last year the ₹7,500-crore cookie market in India was growing at a steady clip of 12-15 per cent year-on-year. Last year, growth dipped to 7 per cent due to demonetisation. However, we have been growing at a CAGR of 50 per cent from 2012-2017, making us the fastest growing company in the premium cookie segment,” Nikhil Sen, Managing Director, Unibic Foods, told BusinessLine . “With the addition of our fifth production line, we are one of the largest cookie manufacturers with production lines integrated in one single location,” he added.
Unibic has 21 variants of cookies under five categories, including Staples, Indulgence, Semi-healthy, Digestive and Sugar-free, and is available in 200,000 outlets as well as on BigBasket.com and Amazon.in.
The company has just launched a new range of cookies in three variants that provide consumers with a “healthier option” to snack on. Ragi cookies that are rich in calcium, potassium and are a good source of iron; Wow cookies that are gluten-free made of rice flour and corn meal; and 40 per cent Oats that are high in dietary fibre, vitamins and minerals.
Pointing out that consumers are looking for healthier snacking options today and the new range caters to that need, Sen said: “In 2005, cookies constituted 20 per cent of the total biscuit market, today it has grown to 30 per cent of the ₹25,000-crore biscuit market. There is tremendous potential for cookie consumption in India as the per capita consumption in the country is just 1.5-2 kg compared to 6 kg in Europe, 8 kg in the UK and 12 kg in Ireland, which tops in consumption. Even South-East Asian countries are ahead of India at 4 kg per capita consumption.”
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