Of the eight Cookie Man franchisees in India, 80% are women
MUMBAI: It is a sheer coincidence and it is working very well for Cookie Man’s Indian joint venture partner.
Launched in 2000 with a company-owned outlet in India’s first-ever shopping Spencer in Chennai, the Cookie Man India has close to 25 outlets in various metros.
However, a very interesting aspect about its franchisees is that 7 out of 8 franchisees are women entrepreneurs.
Besides, with 60% of the Cookie Man customers comprising women, the adventitious approach is helping the company scale up from Rs 65 lakh turnover in 2002 to Rs 10.4 crore in March 2006.
SBP Pattabhi Rama Rao, president, Australian Foods (I) Pvt Ltd, told DNA Money: “It certainly was not a deliberate approach as far as appointing women franchisees was concerned. Their commitment, business acumen and ability to connect with the target audience were the deciding factors for allotting them the franchise. However, this does not mean that we will only work with women. For instance, in Mumbai we have a male franchisee and he is generating good revenues for the company.”
Australian Foods is a joint venture between Cookie Man of Australia which has 40% stake while the balance is shared equally between the Cookie Man India partner Pattabhi and a private equity investor.
It operates in Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Mumbai and Kolkata. Of these cities, except for Mumbai and Kolkata, all the other outlets are run by women franchisees.
In Mumbai, Cookie Man has three outlets — one each at Inorbit, outside Shopper’s Stop and inside the CR2 mall. In the next four to five years, the company is plans to further invest to the tune of Rs 25 crore in the Indian market.
Elucidating the reason behind setting up another manufacturing unit, Pattabhi said that majority of their market today is based in the south. “It is much more comfortable servicing it from Chennai. But as we grow the network in the West and North, another facility will be required to ensure timely supplies,” he said.
Targeting potential customers in the SEC A and B markets besides en-cashing on the corporate gifting segment, the cookies are being currently retailed through two retail formats — Cookie Man stores (450 sq ft) and Cookie Man
Express outlets (30 to 50 sq ft).
Said Pattabhi: “We follow the typical hub and spoke model where in every hub is ideally supported by a minimum of eight spokes (express outlets).”
While the stores model will essentially be in shopping malls especially those with high footfalls in excess of 10,000 visitors daily, the express outlets will be housed in the airports, outside lifestyle retail stores, etc with a minimum footfall of 2,000 visitors.
The average monthly revenue at Cookie Man Express outlets is Rs 3.5 lakh while it gets quadrupled in the stores format at Rs 12 to 14 lakh a month.
The company offers three styles of cookies. The basic range of crispy crunchy cookies comprising 28 varieties and retailed at Rs 400 per kilogram contributes to the tune of 60% of the total sales.
The premium soft and chewy or super cookies are available in nine varieties retailing at Rs 25 per piece. The more specialised ones are the chocolate dip and cream filled cookies available in seven varieties. In value terms, the legitimate biscuit market in India is estimated to be between Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000 crore with no concrete evaluation available on the unorganised players.
The regular biscuit segment (glucose) is growing at around 10% to 12% annually however, the cookie market estimated to be over Rs 500 crore.
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