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An old pastime of dunking Parle-G biscuits in a steaming cuppa, and deftly biting off the tea-soaked half before it crumbled over itself may have soothed the nerves of many suffering from lockdown blues. This 5-rupees-a-pack cookie came handy for many migrants who trekked hundreds of kilometers to get back home. While many stocked their kitchen cabinets with Parle-Gs, the do-gooders distributed them in sacksful to the needy.
Parle-G records 'best sales' in 8 decades during COVID-19 lockdown. A household brand since 1938, Parle G revealed that March, April, and May had been their best months in over eight decades. It, however, didn't share specific sales numbers.
The overall market share increased by nearly 5% and 80-90% of this growth has come from Parle-G sales.
Biscuits across price points have seen a massive surge in sales volumes over the past three months.
Britannia’s Good Day, Tiger, Milk Bikis, Bourbon, and Marie and Parle’s Krackjack, Monaco, and Hide & Seek have sold significant numbers during the lockdown.
Some of the factors that played in favor of Parle-G are as follows:
👉During the lockdown, Parle-G became the comfort food for many; and for several others, it was the only food they had on them. This is a common man’s biscuit; people who cannot afford bread – buy Parle-G.
👉Parle Products focused on producing its best-selling-but-low-value Parle-G brand as it envisaged massive demand from all its customer segments.
👉Players had been focussing on enhancing distribution reach, especially in rural areas in the past 18-24 months; this worked well for them during the pandemic.
👉The company also restocked its distribution channels within seven days to guarantee product availability at retail outlets during the coronavirus lockdown phase.
👉Several state governments requisitioned Parle for biscuits. Several NGOs also bought humongous quantities from the company.
The Parle-G brand falls under the ‘below-Rs100 per kg’ affordable / value category, which holds one-third of the total industry revenues and accounts for over 50% of the volume sold. The overall Indian biscuit sector is pegged at Rs 36,000 - Rs37,000 crore in fiscal 2020. Parle Products currently has 130 factories all over India, with 120 of them continuously producing units.
In regular times, Parle Products makes close to 400 million Parle-G biscuits every day
Fun trivia around this mammoth number:
- The distance between the earth and the moon can be covered if a month’s production of Parle-G biscuits is stacked side by side.
- If you line up all the Parle-G biscuits consumed annually end-to-end, it can go around the earth 192 times!
“Consumers were taking whatever was available - be it premium or economy priced. Some players may have focused more on premium value SKUs as well. Premiumisation in biscuits needs to be seen in comparison with other categories within food - such as chips, chocolates, and soft drinks; most of these are more expensive than biscuits. So consumers make these trade-offs in the overall food category - rather than within biscuits. That has led to a rise in premium biscuits consumption,” explains Anuj Sethi, senior director, Crisil Ratings.
The 'premium segment' has been growing at a much faster rate as demand for low-priced biscuits has been declining even in rural markets. In terms of value, premium biscuits would have out-gunned the value segment. But in terms of numbers sold, the affordable segment led by Parle-G would have stolen a march over their pricier peers in the last three months.
I believe Parle-G came out with flying colors in providing the country with the essential thing to the neediest in this time of the pandemic.
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