What went wrong for a very popular brand of north India " Bakemans " having wide range of products from biscuits , bread and cakes has been now sold to Srilankan company .
Excerpt For ET
In the 1990s, a north-based biscuits company, Bakemans Industries, gave industry leaders Britannia and Parle Products sleepless nights with its aggressively-priced offerings in the Marie and Glucose segments. The regional brand with an enviable 13% share, most of it coming out of Uttar Pradesh, was going places - until it decided to go national.An attempt to carve out a pan-India presence ended in disaster with it plunging into a sea of red. To wipe out its losses, Bakemans raised prices on its home turf, in Uttar Pradesh. That move proved to be the proverbial final nail in the coffin; Bakemans not only failed to become a national player, it lost pole position in the market in which it once ruled the roost. The company was put up for sale, but even the acquisition by a Sri Lankan biscuit player ended calamitously.
The Bakemans debacle serves as a grim reminder for regional brands seeking to go national.
