Business - Britannia bets big on nano bites

Shruti Sabharwal

BANGALORE: Nusli Wadia-led Britannia’s efforts to drive biscuit sales through personal-consumption packs, priced between Rs 2 and Rs 5, has taken off
with the newly carved out nano segment, possibly adding over Rs 100 crore in FY09, the first full financial year of the roll-out.

Britannia unveiled the personal-consumption packs in the latter half of 2007 to capture new consumption opportunities and to break away from the traditional mould of being a household grocery item for the family.

“We do not want to segment the consumer, instead we want to segment the consumption opportunity. This small pack is for the individual who is on the go and this is much more hygienic than street food,” Britannia Industries managing director Vinita Bali said. “One can also buy this instead of a chocolate and it will be much healthier,” she added.

Britannia created the personal-consumption pack category with its blockbuster mass brand Tiger, and later bought other brands like 50:50, Treat and Marie Gold into the new pack segmentation. With these packs the company is also bracing up to take on the chocolates segment, positioning this as a healthier option.

At over Rs 100 crore, these nano packs account for under 5% of Britannia’s annual revenue currently, but are poised for a quantum leap. In context, it must be mentioned that Britannia has stemmed a drop in its market share, which now stands at 34% by value in the biscuit market this year.

The Rs 2,600-crore Britannia has been working on capturing the new consumption opportunities, especially the market for impulse buying, instead of traditional marketing driven by demographic segmentation. “We think, it makes sense in a market place where the 35 year-old is behaving like a 17 year-old and vice versa,” a company official added.

With the nano personal consumption packs working well for biscuits, Britannia may now do the same in its non-biscuit business, especially in the case of cakes and rusks.