Unibic to scale up production capacity

Premium cookie maker Unibic Foods plans to enhance its production capacity by 10,000 tonnes a year next fiscal to meet the growing demand for its products in the Delhi NCR and North-East markets.

Last year, the cookie maker introduced a new production line to its manufacturing facility in Bengaluru which augmented its capacity by 20 per cent to 100 tonnes a day, raising its total production capacity to 36,000 tonnes a year.

“While the bulk of our sales comes from the four Southern States, in the last 12 months we have registered impressive growth in the Delhi NCR and North-East regions. For the next year, we have identified captive manufacturing capacity in the East with a production capacity of 8,000-10,000 tonnes a year that will help cater to the growth potential that we are planning to achieve.

This addition will take our total production capacity to 44,000 to 46,000 tonnes a year,” Nikhil Sen, MD of Unibic Foods, told BusinessLine.

Sen attributed the growth in the Delhi NCR and the North-East regions to getting the right distributors in place, putting together a good sales team to operate off the ground and using a 360-degree approach.

“We have promoted Unibic in the Hindi speaking markets using general entertainment channels, have done some cricket-related advertising and a lot of activation on the ground with product sampling in schools and in-store promotions that has helped the brand,” he said.

Product diversification

Unibic will start with the production of cheaper brands in the captive manufacturing plant, while the premium brands will be made in Bengaluru.

Cashing in on the compulsive snacking habits of Indians, the company forayed into the snack bar segment 14 months ago with the launch of six variants that are positioned as snacking alternatives that are healthy and indulgent. One of the six snack bars – Meetha Paan, that offers the flavours of paan without the unhealthy addition of supari, seems to have grabbed the attention of those who would love to eat paan in a more hygienic and convenient form.

Sen said the foray into snack bars was fairly successful as the target of achieving 5 per cent of the company’s overall volume from snack bars has been achieved. “We are now up among the leaders (Rite Bite, Yoga Bar) in the segment,” he said.