Donning a New Look:

"Our markets are poised for exciting times. As a successful organisation, we must not only keep
pace with consumer expectation, but also anticipate them. Our new identity is to lay the base to
project our future as a successful 'food' company, a company that provides high quality and tasty,
yet healthy foods and beverages"

Said by: Nusli Wadia, Chairman, Britannia Industries Limited.

"I conform to the view that there are three kinds of companies - those that watch things happen;
those that make things happen; and those that wonder what happened. We certainly wish to make
things happen.....My personal commandment is Do unto others what you don't wish Done unto
you. It's not the big who swallow the small; it is the fast who swallow the slow"

Said by: Sunil Alagh, CEO, Britannia Industries Limited.

In 1997, BIL, whose business seemed to be doing well, instead of concentrating on it, virtually
charted a new course by seeking to reinvent itself. It built a new corporate identity and adopted a
colorful and identifiable logo with a new base line - 'Eat Healthy, Think better.' From being a
manufacturer of baked products, BIL kicked off a diversification exercise to become
comprehensive foods and beverages company making cheese and other dairy products, in
addition to its bakery products. By adopting this strategy Britania came into a new look and
compete with its competitors by promoting its brand name.

As a first step in its strategic plan, BIL hired a Paris based design studio- Shining Strategic
design, to craft a new logo and corporate slogan. Its work involved understanding the perceived
and potential value of the brand where everything from colours and symbols to the typeface, was
evaluated. The work also involved looking at the potential of the market and seeing where BIL
could venture in future.

Research showed that the brand 'Britannia' was synonymous with trust and quality, and the wide
portfolio of products was seen as a source of strength. But, BIL was aiming at faster growth, by
expanding its business within the bakery segment and in select synergistic areas.
BRAND STRATEGY THAT BRITANIA USED TO PROMOTE EACH BRAND:

Britannia Industries Limited has chalked out an umbrella branding strategy for `GoodDay’. As a
first step in this direction, the company rebranded its Merricake range of small cakes and
relaunched the same under the Britannia GoodDay name in January this year. The company
plans to further grow the number of product offerings under the GoodDay name. It has already
launched GoodDay Plum Cake priced at Rs 35 for a 300 gm pack.

GoodDay is one of Britannia’s stronger sub-brands with a variety of offerings in the cookies
segment of the Rs 2,000-crore Indian branded biscuits market.
“The decision emanates from consumer research conducted late last year which highlighted
tremendous potential for the GoodDay brand equity and its extension possibility to other
categories,” says product manager Britannia Industries Limited, Somesh Dayal, commenting on
the fresh strategy for the GoodDay sub-brand.

The company enjoys a 25 per cent share of the market. The small cake market is however
dominated by Monginis with a 40 per cent market share. This despite the fact that Monginis, as
opposed to Britannia, is present in Western India only.

Britannia Industries leads in the Indian branded biscuits market – which are the revenue drivers
for the Rs 824 crore companies. Rival Parle Foods Limited is currently number two in this
market with around 38 per cent market share

To ensure that the core business was not sidelined, BIL brought about changes in the
management structure until that there were two clear divisions: Bakery and Dairy-each operating
as independent profit centres. To meet the objective of bolstering its bakery business, BIL re-
positioned each one of its biscuit brands on a new platform and ensured that each brand had a
base statement making clear the 'higher order benefits' of the brand. BIL used combinations of
price and appeal to straddle every segment of the market, challenging all levels of competition.

BIL had structured a wide range of price-points: from Re 1 for a sachet of Tidbits to Rs 12 for a
pack of 10 Good Day Pista Badam cookies, to Rs 15 for a 100 gm pack of Cheezlets. Likewise,
BIL had straddled the spectrum of segments with different product-benefits, all of which only
reinforced the mother brand's new platform. In regard to brand building, BIL followed the
strategy of 'brand clustering'. The strategy was to let 'Britannia' remain the mother brand under
which a cluster of sub-brands would be present for specific product categories.

With this in view, BIL revamped its biscuit business. At the low-end price-point, was the 'Tiger'
brand, a "calcium-enriched" glucose biscuit launched in 1997, which acted as the umbrella brand
for the mass market. Until then, BIL had focussed on the middle and premium segments of the
biscuit market, leaving Parle's Parle G to rule the mass market. With the mass segment
accounting for half of the unorganised market, it seemed strategically important for BIL to make
inroads into the same.
Therefore, as a part of its new plan to attack the mass market, BIL launched the 'Tiger' brand and
positioned it as a 'health force biscuit' as consumer research showed that good health was the
overwhelming consideration when mothers chose snacks for their children. Analysts felt that
since Glucose had become a generic brand, BIL by establishing a new brand was clearly
differentiating its Glucose biscuits from others.

The 'Tiger' brand eventually seemed to have been a huge success with its products, Tiger
Glucose (Rs 5 for a 100-gm pack) and Tiger Cashew Badam (Rs 6 for 75 gm) together,
achieving within a year of their launch a turnover of Rs 100 crore and a marketshare of, 30% in
the glucose biscuits segment. BIL then focused on its core biscuit brands- Marie, Thin
Arrowroot, and Milk Bikis-which faced competition from similarly branded alternatives like
Bakeman's English Marie, Milka Biscuits, and Priya Marie. In order to overcome the
competition, BIL differentiated its brands by bringing them under the 'Eat Healthy, Think Better'
banner and giving them clearly-defined positioning.

For Milk Bikis, targeted at children, BIL launched variants like Milk Bikis Funland, which were
animal-shaped biscuits. Marie was renamed Marie Gold, and positioned as a tea-time biscuit.
Thin Arrowroot was renamed Jacob's Thin, with its position as the low-calorie health biscuit
reinstated. In 1999, BIL relaunched its low-calorie, high-nutrition brands-Thinlite, Cream
Cracker, and Digestive under the Nutrichoice umbrella, targeting the fast-growing health-
conscious segment. BIL seemed to be quick in gauging the rising demand for products in the
impulse category of snacks (e.g. chips and chocolates).

Accordingly, BIL came up with trendier products like Little Hearts, Pure Magic, and Chekkers,
targeting the under-24 urban consumer, positioning them with statements they identified with.
For example 'Direct Dil Se' for Little Hearts, 'Full Of Taste And Fun' for Pure Magic, and 'For
The Ups And Downs In Life' for Chekkers. In 1999, BIL had launched Snack, a line of ethnic
snackfoods using low-fat oils and hygienic processes, in 3 variants: Calcutta Ka Chana Choor,
Bikaner Ka Bhujiya, and Rajasthan Ka Aloo Bhujiya, with an eye on the almost Rs 1800 crore
snack market in India.

In the segment of 'breads' which contributed about 6% of the company's total revenues, BIL's
presence was restricted to a few cities. In the face of increasing competition, it decided to
strengthen its bread business in the southern states and was seriously looking for acquisitions and
manufacturing tie-ups in that region. It also planned to leverage the key strength of the daily
distribution system of its bread business in its new ventures like milk. With a view to boosting
volumes, BIL also changed its packaging strategy by launching biscuits in small sachets.

It launched the low-priced sachets, 'Tiger Tikis-nibblets' priced at Re 1-targetting the mass
market. BIL simultaneously revamped its distribution channels, increasing its retail distribution
network to more than 1.20 million outlets. To increase penetration, more than half of the new
outlets serviced, were in the rural and semi-urban markets-a break from the past, when BIL's
distribution was distinctly skewed towards urban India.
As part of its strategy to reduce its dependence on biscuits, BIL sought to diversify its product
portfolio to include categories that fitted within its overall objective of transforming itself into a
food company. BIL targeted segments where it had the potential of capturing either the number
one or number two position.

So we will be entering only those areas which will form part of the daily eating habits of an
Indian home and offer either high volume or high value." Analysts felt that what BIL had done
was to build on the company's already successful brand. With the basic motto of 'eat the BIL
product you like, but eat,' the company provided the consumer with an option at all times of
consumption (other than the main meals of lunch and dinner).

The underlying philosophy was to provide 'tasty yet healthy' snacks that one could eat and drink
throughout the day, in short, a product for each occasion and for every consumer. BIL saw an
opportunity in the dairy segment as it had only one large player, Amul. Its strategy was to build
on the strong affinity that Indian consumers had for milk and milk products in its diary venture.
BIL wanted to do in dairy products what it has done in biscuits: cover all segments. As with
other large markets, we will seek to segment the market for dairy products too. This could mean
that our portfolio will include premium brands, with a high degree of value-addition, as well as
popular-priced brands that could add critical mass." BIL entered the dairy segment in 1997 with
cheese and milk powder or dairy whiteners. By 2000, BIL captured about 35% of market share
of the cheese market and 20% in the dairy whitener segment. It launched butter in 1998,
flavoured milk, sub-branded 'zipsip' in tetra packs in 1999 and ghee in February 2000. The
company relaunched its entire dairy business in late April 2000 by bringing it under the
'Milkman' name. The pricing, communication, package, design had all been revamped.

The word 'flavoured' was dropped from the milk range, as research had shown that in India, the
word 'flavoured,' connoted 'artificial' to consumers. BIL's diversification reflected its parent,
Danone's portfolio. Ever since it got control of BIL, Danone had been providing it technology in
biscuits and pastries. Danone's biggest business, dairy products, was the driving force for BIL's
diversification. However, dairy products accounted for a meagre 9% of BIL's turnover. But BIL
hoped that was going to change.

With rapid growth witnessed in health and nutrition food products in India, Britannia Industries
is looking to extend its presence in the segment. Along with improving the existing brands to
make them more healthy, it is planning its future launches with the growing health conscious
consumer in the mind. The company has products like Milk Bikis, Tiger and NutriChoice which
are its primary offerings in the health segment and has just launched the NutriChoice Health
Starter Kit ( Priced @ Rs100/-)consisting of three biscuit boxes, a seven-day pre-activated
Talwalkars gym pass, a gym sipper bottle and a health diet chart. "We have renovated some of
our brands to make them healthier. We have removed 10,000 tonnes of transfats from our
products. The market size for health and nutrition food products is estimated to be Rs 3,000-
4,000 crore. The overall growth in the biscuit category is in low-double digits. However, health-
focused biscuits are recording a growth of 20-25 per cent.
Britannia has an urban-rural consumer divide of roughly 60: 40. While urban consumers
continue to drive growth in the health segment, the desire to shift to healthier products, according
to Chandra, is increasing in rural areas. The company was non-comittal on price rise. "Input
costs have increased significantly in the last few months. Britania examining it. Price rise would
depend on the market.