Plans to shut loss making Daily Bread Gourmet Foods biz that operates a chain of 29 bakery stores in Bangalore;
Nusli Wadia-owned Britannia Industries, a leading bakery products manufacturer, aims to take on the number one player Parle Products within the next three years with a slew of new bakery products.
"Parle's share is 3% more than us and it is our intention to overtake them in next three years," Britannia chairman Nusli Wadia told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting on Tuesday.
"The gap between Parle and us is very small. The ambition is to bridge the gap before that," managing director Varun Berry later told reporters.
While market share data are usually collated by market research agencies, Britannia is believed to be enjoying around 30% share.
And the strategy to emerge number one in the Rs 25,000 crore market has already started as Britannia plans to come up with disruptive innovations in coming days.
"We are preparing a pipeline of innovations and in next six months, market would see our power of disruptive products from us," Berry said.
In the first quarter, Britannia was able to improve its market share by 16% as its topline grew a robust 15% though market grew just 6%.
Growth of biscuits have fallen from about 15% a year back, mainly due to poor consumer sentiments.
To fight slump in business, Britannia, apart from new product launches, most of which would be in premium segment, the company is also strengthening its distribution reach.
"We are getting depth of distribution in rural areas. This year we are going to take a big leap in distribution, raising it as much as 40% across the country and about 25% in rural areas," Berry said.
Capex plan for the next two years would be Rs 150-200 crore, to be invested in two elements; new products and new capacity, Wadia said.
Even as Britannia expands product portfolio and capacities, it plans to shut its loss-making Daily Bread Gourmet Foods business that operates a chain of 29 bakery stores in Bangalore through a subsidiary.
"Daily Bread is not one of our shinning performances frankly. It's a business where we don't need to stay," Wadia said.
On a turnover of Rs 20 crore, it suffered a loss of Rs 3.30 crore in fiscal 2014.
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