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Amul locks horns with Britannia, Parle and ITC over ‘real butter’ cookies

In terms of pricing, the cookies are priced at Rs 10 for a 40-gram pack. Competitors like Britannia sell ‘Good Day’ butter cookies at Rs 5 for a 39-gram pack. Parle sells its 20-20 butter cookies at Rs 20 for a 150-gram pack.

July 24, 2019 / 02:49 PM IST

A full blown battle is shaping up in the Rs 25,000-crore biscuit manufacturing sector. Dairy major Amul, which launched butter cookies three months ago, has now accused other biscuit manufacturers of not making ‘real butter’ cookies.

In its latest ad campaign, Amul claims that most butter cookies available in the market contain only 0.3 to 3 percent butter and 20-22 percent vegetable oil. On the other hand, Amul says that its cookies are made of 25 percent butter and have no vegetable oil.

In terms of pricing, the cookies are priced at Rs 10 for a 40-gram pack. Competitors like Britannia sell ‘Good Day’ butter cookies at Rs 5 for a 39-gram pack. Parle sells its 20-20 butter cookies at Rs 20 for a 150-gram pack.

In terms of overall market share, Britannia has market share of about 34 percent, Parle Products has share of about 29 percent and ITC has approximately 18 percent share in the biscuits space.Amul at this point has a negligible market share in the biscuits space and therefore analysts don’t expect a major dent through this ad campaign. “Although Amul has been doing comparative Ads in biscuits, We see limited impact of Amul’s aggression on Britannia given - 2x premium pricing, limited manufacturing capacity of Amul biscuits, limited distribution of Amul’s biscuit which is currently in only a few states and hardly any presence in online channels,” says Abneesh Roy, Research Analyst - Executive Vice President, Edelweiss, in a note.

However, speaking to CNBC-TV18, RS Sodhi, MD, Amul, said the company has plans to go big in the biscuits and overall bakery space. “We have launched these cookies in Gujarat and parts of Mumbai as of now. The plan is to launch these cookies across trade channels in Maharashtra and Rajasthan as well.” Amul has set up plants in Anand and Surat to manufacture cookies and other bakery products.

Interestingly, Amul had launched a similar ad campaign in the ice-creams space where it locked horns with players such as HUL. In its ad campaign, Amul had emphasised the difference between ice-creams and frozen desserts. The ad said that ice-creams contain milk fats, while frozen desserts contain vegetable oil. It’ll be interesting to see how players like Britannia, Parle and ITC respond to this accusation by Amul.

Source: CNBC-TV 18

CNBC
first published: Jul 23, 2019 03:07 pm

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