Market research on Britannia

Britannia was incorporated in 1918 as Britannia Biscuits Co Ltd in Calcutta. In 1924, Pea Frean UK acquired a controlling stake, which later passed on to the Associated Biscuits International (ABI) a UK based company. During the ’50s and’ 60s, Britannia expanded operations to Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai. Exports of sea foods started in the ’70s. In 1987, Nabisco, a well known European food company, acquired ABI. In 1989, J M Pillai, a Singapore based NRI businessman along with the Groupe Danone acquired Asian operations of Nabisco and thus acquired controlling stake in Britannia. Later, Groupe Danone and Nusli Wadia took over Pillai’s holdings. In 1977, the Government reserved the industry for small scale sector, which constrained Britannia's growth. Britannia adopted a strategy of engaging contract packers (CP) in the small scale sector. This led to several inefficiencies at the operating level. In April ’97, the Government dereserved the biscuit sector from small scale. Britannia has expanded captive manufacturing facilities and has modernized and upgraded its facilities in the last five years. It has also forayed into the Dairy Business with the launch of Cheese, Butter, Ghee, Dairy whitener and flavored milk products.

[...] The Biscuit market is growing as a whole, thus Britannia stands to benefit just by maintaining itself. 4.) The Tiger Brand Britannia’s Tiger brand is very successful in it’s segment. Launched as direct competition to Parle’s Glucose Biscuits, it contributes 25% of the Companies Volumes and 19% of it’s Sales 5.) The Premium Range Britannia faces no competition at all in its premium range of biscuits. It’s Cream Treat Range of Products are at present the only players in that segment. [...]

[...] The promotion offered 100 cricket enthusiasts an opportunity to visit South Africa and cheer the Indian team in person in a match against Pakistan on March The offer was valid on select Britannia products from October onwards. Wrappers of every such offer pack carried a certain number of runs which could be exchanged for a specially designed `World Cup '03 scratch card' at any of the 8,000 authorized Britannia Prize centers across the country. On scratching the pad on the card, the prizes were revealed to the customer. [...]

[...] In 2002, Britannia had decided to focus on two segments namely the biscuits market and the mass market in the snacking arena. And Tiger, 50-50 and Timepass the chosen lead brands in these two categories. The mass market represents a huge opportunity with its vast consumer base buying both into branded products and those from the commodity sector. Brands like Tiger, for instance, owe their success to being able to both gain upgrades from the unorganised market and increasingly become a preferred brand in the organized market SALES GROWTH STRATEGIES At a time when growth rates for most FMCG products had wound down to single digit, Britannia had managed to sustain a fairly healthy growth in its sales revenues. [...]