ITC has now entered into the Indian breakfast segment with a ready-to-cook and ready-to-mix range and staples under its FMCG brand “Aashirvaad”, plunging into competition with multinationals such as Kellogg, PepsiCo, and Nestle, and Indian companies MTR and Gits Food.
ITC’s divisional chief executive for food business, Hemant Mallik, said that ITC has launched breakfast staples, including rawa, sooji, and vermicelli, and plans to extend the brand into the adjacent categories of Dalia, poha, and multi-millet cereals.
The breakfast staples market in India has a potential of over ₹10,000 crores and is growing at over 12% every year. The ready-to-cook, ready-to-mix, and staples categories have higher margins compared with packaged commodities, but low penetration from branded players.
Aashirvaad has largely been a brand with products for meal occasions, be it atta, salt, pulses, or ghee. We are extending the brand into other value-added segments with which one can cook breakfast or snacks, “said Malik. “Some of these categories have huge scope and have the capacity to generate good margins by leveraging our scale, wheat adjacencies and supply chain efficiency.” He added that the per-kilogram price realization of these products is much more than the regular atta.ITC has introduced idli sambhar, upma, instant poha, instant suji halwa, and idli and dosa instant mixes in the ready-to-cook category. It will also extend ‘Aashirvaad’ into besan. ITC’s largest brand in the non-cigarette FMCG segment, with a consumer spend (which includes sales, trade commission and taxes) of over ₹6,000 crores. While the brand started with packaged atta—where it has more than 40% share in the ₹13,000-crore market that caters to over 40 million households—it has over the years moved into organic pulses, salts, dairy products, premium flour and spices.
The category expansion of Aashirvaad will help to premiumize the portfolio. ITC wants the brand to play in the Indian cuisine space in breakfast and non-western cereals like oats.
ITC’s food business is the largest in the non-cigarette FMCG segment, with gross revenue of ₹12,241 crores in 2020–21, growing at 18% year-on-year.
