In FY22, Parle Products surpassed $2 billion in annual revenues and became the first packaged food company in India to breach the mark.
Founded in 1929 at Vile-Parle, a suburb in Mumbai, Parle Products founder Mohanlal Dayal Chauhan first launched an orange candy and other confectionery items before entering the biscuit segment 10 years later. The company runs over 132 manufacturing units in the country, and the biscuits segment accounts for 70% of its annual sales, followed by snacks and confectionery.
Parle reported a 9% increase in net sales to Rs. 16,202 crores, while profit fell 81% to Rs. 256 crores in the fiscal year ended March 31.A year ago, it had sales of Rs. 14,923 crore and profits of Rs. 1,366 crores.
The giant biscuit company stated that its value for money strategy, particularly for Parle G, has been critical in consistently growing the brand over the years, especially during inflationary times when consumers are cutting back on spending and opting for smaller packs.
Mayank Shah, senior category head at Parle Products, said, “The growth was also driven by rural areas, which account for nearly 55–60% of the overall sales. We also expanded our distribution by 12% last year, which helped. Last year’s profit was abnormal when we didn’t run any schemes or promotions in the trade, curtailed advertising, and saved significantly on variable costs during Covid.”
The biscuit brand has been India’s top FMCG brand every year since a decade, according to Brand Footprint, Kantar Worldpanel’s annual ranking of the most chosen consumer brands in India.
The five-rupee-a-pack Parle-G had also become the second Indian fast-moving consumer goods brand to cross the $1 billion mark in retail sales last year, after Haldiram.
Two years ago, Parle overtook rivals including Britannia and Nestle to become the country’s biggest food company by annual revenue. Britannia had revenues of Rs. 14,359 crores, while Nestle had sales of Rs. 14,829 crore last fiscal.
Parle’s biggest rival, Britannia, is the market leader by value in the biscuit category and has been gaining market share consecutively over the past 38 quarters after trebling their dealership and retail coverage over the past 7–8 years. In fact, after outpacing Parle in 2015-16, Britannia has widened the gap and now controls over 40% of the value share in the Rs. 45,000 crore biscuit markets. Parle, however, leads in volume and sells 1.2 million metric tonnes of biscuits annually.
Parle said its ubiquitous glucose biscuit brand benefited as prices of other packaged foods surged. In fact, biscuits have grown consistently even as other consumer goods have declined. The per capita consumption of biscuits is still very low, despite being a basic necessity in most markets.
Also, biscuits per kilogram are the lowest within the packaged food segment at Rs. 100–120 compared to other snacks that sell for over Rs. 250 per kg. The biscuit segment grew by double digits during the year and by about 7-8% by volume.