Major Competitors of Lay’s Potato Chips

Chips industry in Bangladesh is not small. There are a lot of chips producers. Some of them are
national and some of them are local suppliers. Some companies also export their chips. In our
country many foreign brands are also available. They are comparatively costly also. So the
consumers’ taste and demand are changing from low quality chips to high quality chips. Now the
chips industry of Bangladesh is very competitive.

Level and Type of Competition:

One can’t imagine about a business without competition. Lays has also some competitors. But as
quality of the product play an important role that is not up to the standard by the competitors. So,
Lays is outstanding in all ways to the competitors like quality, quantity, price and variety of the
products etc.
Their competition strategies are based on the competitor’s strategy. In case of Lay’s, they don’t
follow the price war competitive strategy. They follow the standard of product and quality in
competition. Their competition type is oligopoly.

Competitors Products:
Following Competitor’s products are being sold in the market and their product availability is
better than Lay’s. Another reason for their presence is the Credit facility and high margins.
 Bombay Sweets potato crackers
 Bombay Sweets Mr. twist
 Bombay Sweets Ring chips
 Potato sticks
 Meridian prawn
 Meridian chicken
 Meridian real thai shrimp
 Ruchi chicken flavor
 Ruchi Banana flavor
 Ruchi tomato flavor
 PranCrackers
 Pran shrimp
 Sun Real potato(Tomato/ mix masalla/garlic)
 Pringles chips etc.
Competitors in Bangladesh:
Lay’s potato chips has some hard competitors. It is found from a survey that more than 52% of
the consumers refer Bombay Sweets as their favorite chips Brand. The second position was of
Meridian and it was 32%. Another important thing here is about Lays. This brand has come up to
third position within a very short time. It was possible because their continuous TV commercials
aired on the satellite TV channels. But, as the price of Lays is comparatively high, Sun Real
potato take a good place among people. To the retailer Bombay is the most profit earning brand.
Sun, Lays and Meridian placed respectively second, third and fourth position. And Ispahani is at
the fifth place. Since Bombay Sweets sells most, So Bombay is the most profitable brand to
them.
Bombay sweets are the undoubted market leader of this product. They got the advantage of
being first mover. They pioneered chips in Bangladesh. Though Meridian is comparatively new,
they have come up with significant market share within a short time. Same thing happened even
in more pace in case of Ruchi.
Continuous promotion and strategic implementation led them to this extreme level of
successes.

Bombay Sweets:
Bombay Sweets is the pioneer in the packet chips industry in Bangladesh. They launched
Bombay Sweets Potato Crackers in 1985. At that time there was no other competitors for packet
chips. Through their widespread network they have made the products available in all over the
country. Gradually the market has been expanded and now there are as long as more than eighth
competitors in the market. There are more than twenty brands in the market with some
international competitors. Besides packet chips there is a huge market of homemade chips.
Bombay Sweets have five distributors in Dhaka. It is usually door-to-door distributing. These
distributors are sole distributors for their locality. The manufacturer delivers the products on
specific days of the week to their place and he distributes it to the retailers with the help of his
employees. The distributor plays here the main role. The manufacturer provides no other extra
support like financial or Human resources.

Meridian:
Meridian Foods Ltd. was established in August in 1998 with a vision to create an industry of
food where there’s no consideration with quality at a beautiful site. It came with the best food in
Bangladesh. Immediately after the introduction of the brand MERIDIAN it became very popular
among its consumer because of the high quality and intensive distribution in every nook and
corner of the country. There are five distributors of Meridian in Dhaka who reaches the retailer
while the sales office of the manufacturer delivers the products to the wholesalers. The
commission is nearly six percent on sales. No other facilities are admissible to them.

Ruchi:
Ruchi is considered as the pioneer in introducing innovative products in the industry. Ensuring
tasty & quality snacks the products are marketed in attractive packaging for attracting millions of
taste seekers at home & abroad. Ruchi always steps ahead from its competitor by offering tasty
& healthy snacks specially chips. Healthy production process using finest quality raw materials,
providing the taste of fun & joy while ensuring health & hygiene and assuring to satisfy the
continuous demand of tasty snacks for all- these three are the main advantage for this product.

Sun chips:
About SUNCHIPS Established in 2009,Quasem Food Products Limited is the first ever
manufacturer of real Potato chips in Bangladesh with its flagship product: SUNCHIPS Made in
brand-new, high-tech factory from the finest Bangladeshi potatoes, top quality Palm Oil and the
freshest and most flavorful seasonings available. Sun chips has quickly become the favorite
snack of Bangladesh.

Pran:
PRAN snacks are typically designed to be portable, quick and satisfying. PRAN chips are
designed to be less perishable, more durable, and more appealing than prepared foods.

Pringles chips:
Pringles is an American brand of potato and wheat-based stackable snack chips owned by
Kellogg's. Originally marketed as "Pringles Newfangled Potato Chips", Pringles are sold in more
than 140 countries, and it was the fourth most popular snack brand after Lay's. Pringle's
Newfangled Potato Chips, made by Procter & Gamble Co. out of a dehydrated mash of cooked
potatoes and marketed in tennis-ball-like cans. Now a days it has become a competitor in chips
industry for its attractive packaging and outstanding taste.

source: www.academia.edu/8851283/Marketing-Plan-for-Ispahani-Chips
Threats of Lay’s Chips in Bangladesh:
After discussing the major competitors it can be concluded that because of some competitive
advantages of several potato chips available at market, Lay’s chips faces some threads
accordingly. This is true that chips is not the only competitor at this site, but there are also some
other snacks in market which can be treated as a substitute of chips. So to find out the main
threads there are some findings discussing below:
 Competitors like Bombay sweets, Meridian, Sun-those are the biggest threats to this
product.
 At the same way indirect competitors are contributing.
 Price is a major fact for this product; besides some other competitors are offering same
product with relatively low price. So although it is popular for its outstanding taste, but
price is a major fact here to compete in the market.
 Distribution channel is a most important fact to ensure the competency and availability. If
we see the other competitors, their distribution channels are stronger and more available
than Lay’s. So also from this aspect, this is a threat of Lay’s chips in Bangladesh.
 The people who are the wholesalers of other chips are the sellers of Lays in our country.
They distribute Lays to the retailers.
 BUSCUITS and Noodles hold major share of Market.
 New entrants can also the threat for the LAY’S chips and may create hurdles in the
growth.
 Although they are trying to make their efforts best to make their supply excellent but still
they are not reached to the rural areas of Bangladesh.
 Some areas like Highways (especially on Motorway) and many others exist in
Bangladesh where still LAY’S cannot manage to fulfill their requirements and where the
products of competitors are available.
 LAY’S are not providing any extra facility or benefit to the customer like the other
competitors do. For instance, to attract the children, Meridian chips offers different kind
of toys inside the chips.
 Small companies that are not a problem at that time may become the main competitors or
threats to LAY’S chips.
 There are many substitutions in the case of snacks which is the great threat for LAY’S
chip’s.
 People usually like variety in flavors which is the upcoming threat to the LAY’S because
they have only four flavors .
 Govt. policies may affect the growth of the lay’s chips.