BRITANNIA

RESEARCH PAPER
 BRITANNIA INDUSTRIES LIMITED
OVERVIEW
Britannia Industries Limited is an Indian company specialised in food industry, part
of the Wadia Group headed by Nusli Wadia. Founded in 1892 and headquartered
in Kolkata, it is one of India's oldest existing companies and best known for its biscuit
products. The company sells its Britannia and Tiger brands
of biscuits, breads and dairy products throughout India and abroad. Beginning with
the circumstances of its takeover by the Wadia Group in the early 1990s, the company
has been mired in several controversies connected to its management. However, it still
has a large market share and it is profitable.
BRIEF HISTORY

The company was established in 1892 by a group of British businessmen with an

investment of ₹295. Initially, biscuits were manufactured in a small house in central
Kolkata. Later, the enterprise was acquired by the Gupta brothers, mainly Nalin
Chandra Gupta, an attorney, and operated under the name "V.S. Brothers." In 1918,
C.H. Holmes, an English businessman based in Kolkata, was taken on as a partner and
The Britannia Biscuit Company Limited (BBCo) was launched. The Mumbai factory
was set up in 1924 and Peek Freans UK, acquired a controlling interest in BBCo.
Biscuits were in high demand during World War II, which gave a boost to the
company's sales. The company name was changed to the current "Britannia Industries
Limited" in 1979. In 1982, the American company Nabisco Brands, Inc. acquired the
parent of Peek Freans and became a major foreign shareholder.
In September 2022, Varun Berry named Executive VC and MD of Britannia. And
also Britannia also announced the appointment of Rajneet Kohli as its executive
director and chief executive officer.

PRODUCTS

BISCUITS: GOOD DAY, CRACKERS, NUTRICHOICE,MARIE GOLD ,MILK BIKIS, JIM JAM,TREAT, LITTLE
HEART, PURE MAGIC.

BREADS: WHOLE WHEAT BREADS, WHITE SANDWICH BREADS, DAILY BREADS.

DAIRY: CHEESE, MILK BASED BEVERAGES, FRESH DAIRY ,EVERY DAY GOODNESS

CAKES: GOBBLES, TIFFIN FUN, NUT N RAISIN, MUFFILLS, LAYERS, ROLLIO, FUDGEIT.

RUSK: TOASTEA

CREME WAFERS: TREAT CREME WAFERS.

Croissant: TREAT CROISSANT

 MARKETING MIX
As we know Marketing mix is actually stands for 4 P’s - PRODUCT , PRICE ,PLACE AND PROMOTION.

PRODUCT:
Britannia manufactures wide variety of biscuits and dairy products. Britannia’s product strategy in its
marketing mix width primarily consists of biscuits, bread, dairy, cakes and rusk. The product line depth is
highest for biscuits consisting of several products, followed by cakes and breads. Britannia manufactures
biscuits for various segments of consumers, types include sugar free biscuits, cream biscuits and jam
biscuits. Some of its popular brands are Britannia Nutrichoice, Britannia Marie Gold, Britannia Pure Magic,
Britannia Little Hearts etc. Britannia Tiger biscuits is the most famous of all products. Tiger biscuits also
cater to the international markets like Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia. With their joint ventures with dairy
companies, Britannia are now able to manufacture and sell cheese, dahi, ghee and butter. Its products are
primarily intended for middle class people India, which forms the bulk of the population.

PRICE:
The base of Britannia’s marketing mix pricing strategy is competition. Also the primary segment for
being middle class people, who are highly price sensitive, forces Britannia to play price war with its
competitors. Britannia tries to bundle its products, which in turn reduces the price of their products, specially
this can be seen in their products which are designed for the family packs. Their strategy of discrimination of
prices help them earn larger profits from consumers who are willing to pay for healthier products and greater
benefits. The price of Britannia products is very much comparable with its competitors, especially with that
of Parle products, and they are almost the same.

PLACE:
Britannia distributes its products primarily via retail chain. The online segment, which contributes to
less purchases, has been possible by having tie ups with large ecommerce organizations. Britannia products
can be purchased from online portals. With extensive and strong distribution network Britannia products,
can be found in all large and small urban areas across India. But the rural distribution network is not as good
as that of the urban market. As a large FMCG player in India, Britannia primarily depends on distributors
who then decide on dealers and retailers for distribution.Britannia has made deals with large retailers like
spencers, big bazaar which hosts large quantity of Britannia products and provides better display location.
PROMOTION:
Since the brand, Britannia is present for more than 100 years, perception about Britannia is always
good and enjoys high brand recall among consumers, this tends to be a great advantage for Britannia.
Advertisements for Television, print media and billboards are few of the many techniques used by Britannia
in their promotional marketing mix. Britannia has signed agreements with famous personalities to promote
their brand, but this has been different for different products. A bigger part of their promotional activities is
done in the sports sector. Britannia logo tagged cricket bats endorsed by international players plays an
important promotional activity. Britannia also promotes their product as “essential for good health”, this
captures the mind of consumers as nowadays people tend to be more conscious about the nutrient value of
what they consume. Hence, this concludes the Britannia marketing mix.

The assembly line for manufacturing

          The manufacturing plant that we visited has three manufacturing lines in operational
condition. One line exclusively for the Good Day, one for the Britannia Milkbikis and lastly one
exclusively dedicated for the manufacturing of sugar-free category of biscuits - Cream Cracker.
The foundation of the manufacturing unit starts with the basic ingredients required for biscuit
manufacturing like flour, sugar, etc, a mixture of which is passed through sieves and milling. It is
then mixed with some liquid like milk, starch, etc before transferring it for drying. It is then passed
through the sieve shaker followed by a long tunnel wherein the granules are converted to different
biscuits. The fresh baked biscuits are then kept in quarantine for 24 hours to ensure their
crispiness. The manufactured biscuits are then sent for packaging, quality control and testing
called as In-process Quality Control.
          The entire manufacturing unit maintains Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and
adequate safety features and measurements. They follow 5S principle in their manufacturing plant.
5S often summarized as “a place for everything and everything in its place”. These are as follows -
SORT: Eliminate that which is not needed
STRAIGHTEN: Organise what remains after sorting.
SHINE: Clean and inspect the work area.
STANDARDIZE: Write standards for 5S.
SUSTAIN: Consistently apply the 5S standards.

Segmentation, targeting, positioning in the Marketing strategy of Britannia

Segmentation helps in understanding the different group of customers available in the population
and what are characteristics associated with each of the group.

Britannia uses a mix of demographic & psychographic segmentation strategy considering the

population variables such as age, social class, education level, income level, marital status, and
occupation.

Britannia has positioned itself as a brand caring for the consumers and serving healthy and
delicious processed foods. It uses value-based positioning strategy.To serve the different customer
groups accordingly, it uses differentiated targeting strategy.

Market analysis in the Marketing strategy of Britannia

The Britannia Company operates in the packaged food industry, in bakery and dairy product
categories.

The business in which Britannia operate has a high share of bakery products especially biscuits
and bread.

Macroeconomic challenges, political stability, infrastructure growth, increasing number of

suppliers, bargaining power of customers as well as suppliers are some of the driving force for the
industry.

Customer analysis in the Marketing strategy of Britannia

Customers of Britannia are people from all age groups who prefer to have snacks and healthy
delicacies on day to day basis.

Britannia has been aggressively penetrating in the rural markets through its Small SKU’s (Stock
keeping units) and outlet coverage which doubled from 7.3 Lakhs directly reached outlets in
Mar.,’14 to 15.5 Lakhs outlet in Mar.,’17.

Competitive advantage in the Marketing strategy of Britannia

Strong Product portfolio: With a wide presence in each of the products
categories supported by the sub-brands has helped the company in capturing the rural
market generating Rs. 1556 Crs in Mar’17 which is 22% jump from the last Financial
Year. Britannia Industries operate in the market with more than 300 SKU’s.Parent
Company, Wadia Group: Britannia Industries is a part of the strong parent company
Wadia group which have a presence in a large number of business whether it is
textile, aviation, Real Estate, plantations, foods, chemicals, electronics and light
engineering, or health care. Some of the well-known companies group have are
Bombay Dyeing, GO Air, Bombay Burmah etc.

Premiumisation of Products: Although the company has sub-brands in its product

portfolio recently it has entered into premium bakery & Dairy products segment in
order of being competitive in the market and have a bouquet of products for all
segments of the society. Some of their products in the segment delivering delightful
innovative products to customers are Good day Wonderfulls, Britannia Treat with
Choco & Vanilla flavor.