Britannia Industries is ready to act as a regional, agile player
Britannia Industries’ strategy is to compete with regional players.
“If there is something that is needed in a particular region in terms of brand, taste, price or recipe, we are prepared to do all of that to make sure we serve that region. And that puts us in a very good position,” Varun Berry, vice chairman and chief executive officer of Britannia Industries, told investors on a conference call Monday.
Talking about distribution, Berry said that the company is currently lagging behind its competitors in the Hindi belt, especially in rural areas. He added that the company’s strategy is depth in urban markets and breadth in rural areas and the company will continue with that strategy.
“In rural areas, the breadth of expansion will continue, especially in the focus market, because we have a huge gap in our market share. However, there is also a huge opportunity in distribution and so those focus markets are very crucial from a distribution perspective,” said Vipin Kataria, Chief Marketing Officer, Britannia Industries, during the call.
The company has expanded its rural distribution and now has 30,000 rural distributors.
Berry said that the countryside is already looking a bit better. He added that the situation is not completely out of the woods yet, but that it is certainly better than before.
Berry said of the beverage industry that he expects revenue from beverages to be around Rs 200 crore by the end of the year, while the cheese industry could clock revenues of over Rs 250 crore.
He added that the dairy business would be worth around Rs 700 crore and the beverages and cheese business would be worth around Rs 460-470 crore.
The biscuit giant last week reported earnings for the April-June quarter, reporting a consolidated net profit of Rs 506 crore for the first quarter of fiscal 2025 ended June 30. That was up 10.5 percent from the same period last year, thanks to better operating margins in the quarter.
Britannia’s total revenue grew to Rs 4,130 crore in Q1FY25, up 4 per cent from the same period last year. This was driven by high single-digit volume growth and improved operating margins year-on-year.
The biscuit maker’s profit before interest, taxes and depreciation rose 5.7 percent to Rs 789 crore.
First print: Aug 05, 2024 | 7:31 PM IST