Parle eyeing 25% market share in snacks segment

Biscuits and confectionary major Parle Products is betting big on the snacks segment for its higher growth trajectory, aiming at more than 25% market share by March 2014, a top company official has said.

"We are betting big and putting all our efforts behind snacks segment. It will largely add to our growth in top line (net income) and also bottom line (profit)," said Parle Products group product manager B Krishna Rao here Saturday evening.

"We are aiming at above 25% market share in two years time," Rao said.

He informed the company, which is India's largest biscuit maker with 45 market share, had a paltry eight percent market share in the snacks segment.

The Rs7,500-crore Indian snacks industry is growing at a rate of about 20%  annually.

The Mumbai-based company presently has brands like Wafers, Full Toss and Namkeen into its snacks portfolio.

"We have just opened up Namkeen in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra for testing the markets. By March next year the brand will be national," Rao informed.

"We also expect 1% increase in market share in both biscuit and confectionary segments next fiscal," he added.

The company presently has 17% market share in confectionary segment.