ITC foods a food arm of India,'s major corporate house ITC ltd , which has business spread out to tobacco , papers , hotels , lifestyle , packaged food and Agri commodities. ITC ltd major earnings come from tobacco business and are leader in this category . To make ITC less dependent on tobacco earnings it has diversified in to foods and personal care segment making it into league of HUL , PG , Kraft and Pepsi . Chitrajan Dar has taken over from Ravi Navare as CEO of it Food division ITC Foods.Sun feast brands of biscuit s have made a mark on biscuit segment giving tough competition to already entrenched players like Britannia and Parle . Taking advantage of huge network of existing dealers and distribution channels ITC could well become a major brand in biscuit segment
Speaks to ET
ITC Foods, the maker of Bingo! Chips, Sunfeast biscuits and Yippee! Noodles, has gained a reputation of being a disruptive player. Contributing 12-13% to its parent's revenue, the division turned the corner last fiscal. Its boss, chief executive Chitranjan Dar , though, is reluctant to take all the credit. He says he took over when brands were established and the division only needed consolidation.
The strength of ITC Foods lies in sourcing staples through its e-choupal system that offers direct contact with farmers and a distribution channel that piggybacks on the equity enjoyed by Wills cigarettes across corner outlets. Dar, who has had a three-decade-run at the cigarettes-to-hotels group, tells Sarah Jacob how the division is now focused on a high-margin, value-added products strategy and is working on developing healthier offerings.
Excerpts from an interview:
Where does Sunfeast stand in the biscuits segment?
Our market share is a third of what Britannia and Parle
Products have. (Industry estimates peg Sunfeast's market share at 11%).
We are looking at profitable growth by following a higher margin,
value-added strategy. We have been focusing on the mid-market and
premium segment and less on glucose biscuits. We launched Marie oats,
Special cookies, premium creams, choco fills and relaunched Marie and
Dark Fantasy.
source
The Economic Times
