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Nutritional value of biscuits and cookies make a highly preferred breakfast meal
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Thursday, 13 May, 2021, 13 : 00 PM [IST]
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Karan Chechi
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The global cream biscuits and cookies market size was approximately $51 billion in 2020 on account of its nutritional factors such as carbohydrates, fats, and fibres which are essential for good health. The nutritional value of biscuits makes a highly preferred breakfast meal across the globe. Therefore, premium quality biscuits containing a rich taste and flavour are getting highly consumed.
The global biscuits market is driven by changing consumer preferences towards healthy snacks, increasing young population, rising urbanisation and increasing awareness about ingredients and health benefits among consumers.
In India, biscuit market size stood nearby $5.28 billion as of FY2020. The biscuit market is divided into four categories, namely cookies, cream biscuits, plain biscuits, center filled biscuits and others. The cream biscuits and cookies had a market size of around $2.40 billion in FY2020, whereas cookies hold a market share of nearly 25%. India biscuit industry is huge which came into spotlight and started gaining remarkable status in the bakery industry at the end of the 20th century. Increasing consumption of packaged and convenience foods and the availability of a variety of biscuits have provided a major boost to the biscuits industry which is now one of the largest among the India FMCG industry.
Moreover, busy lifestyle, spending less time for cooking homemade food, growing tourism and increasing technological advancement and research and development has also led to significant growth in the biscuit industry.
According to Dr Beatrice Golomb of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, trans fats are most strongly linked to bad memory in young and middle-aged people during their working and career-building years. Such artificial trans fats are present in every processed food item such as biscuits, cookies, etc. Therefore, with changing lifestyles, the consumption habits of middle income and upper middle-income groups, growing media coverage on health, increasing concerns over physical appearance and soaring costs of healthcare have led to a greater demand for healthy options. Thus, resulting in the biscuits and cookies market to move towards a healthier path.
Cookies and cream biscuits can quite easily be made more nutritious that is why biscuit manufacturers have started taking this into consideration. Major brands have launched healthy variants containing no added sugar, no trans-fat, higher fibre content, etc., such as cookies made of muesli, oats, wholewheat, multi-grain ragi, corn, honey, rice, etc., to provide a fibre and surplus dose of energy.
India cream biscuits and cookies market is majorly driven by factors such as increasing disposable income, growing working population, changing taste and preferences, rising standard of living, attractive packaging, enhanced flavour, and growth in the organized retail, etc. These cream biscuits and cookies fall under premium segments of the India biscuits market, where the market has witnessed a greater demand for these products. Thus, biscuit companies have started focusing on cream biscuits and cookies segment.
Over the last few years, glucose biscuits were very popular in India, but now it has started losing its market share due to increased demand for cream biscuits and cookies. The biscuit market is already witnessing a consumer shift towards premium products and high margins in the cream and cookie segment which is attracting companies to offer more variants in this segment.
The premium segment earns at least 10% higher margins than other biscuit categories. The cream biscuits and cookies are considered as value added products as consumers nowadays are looking for both value as well as health benefits which are offered by these products and also there is not much price difference between cream biscuits, cookies and glucose biscuits as the companies have started to launch premium biscuits (cookies and cream biscuits) in small packets in order to increase the demand of their products in the rural areas as well.
Such aggressive pricing and increased availability across the country have helped cream biscuits and cookies to hold a sound share in the bottom of the consumer preference pyramid.
Increasing indulgence, health concerns, and familiarity with luxurious taste have led Indian manufacturers to experiment with a variety of biscuits and cookies, i.e., transformation from light to high fibre to multi/whole grain and oats. This has also led to a higher growth in the premium segment compared to the economic and mid segments of the biscuits industry.
The major players in India cream biscuits and cookies market are Britannia Industries Limited, Parle Products Private Limited, ITC India Limited, Unibic Foods India Pvt Ltd, Cremica Food Industries Ltd., etc. These companies are constantly involved in new product launches and product innovations.
Moreover, these companies have changed their marketing strategies to gain consumers’ trust.
In 2002, Britannia, the market leader in the biscuits industry, launched ‘Treat’ for little children to satisfy their changed taste. For more than a decade, children have come up with several devious plans to obtain a Treat. It is well-known among children and in the market for its mouth-watering flavours, cool shapes, and soft cream. Jim Jam is the king of the Treat range, attracting premium segment with its combination of thick vanilla or cunning chocolate cream sandwiched between crisp biscuits, topped with a dollop of jam and sugar crystals.
Since Britannia’s strategy is ‘continuous differentiation' to stay ahead, the company launched new products i.e., Britannia Treat Stars, Treat-Tiramisu and Britannia Red Velvet to capture a strong hold in premium segments.
During the Covid-19 lockdown, India faced an economic slowdown, which significantly impacted all the manufacturing industries due to lack of labour and supply chain disruption. However, India biscuits industry witnessed a double growth rate in April-May 2020 compared to pre-Covid-19 rates. Among all the snacks that vanished from the market during the lockdown, biscuits still managed to be consumer's preferred snacking choice as people stored biscuits and cookies in abundance during the lockdown.
Moreover, another reason of increased consumption of biscuits and cookies during pandemic was people baking cakes at home due to closure of bakery shop and having free time.
In April 2020, packaged foods company, Britannia Industries, partnered with Dunzo, an online delivery platform, to deliver its range of biscuits, cookies, ghee, and dairy whitener, among others to its consumers. During that time people were working from home and did not have enough time to make home-made snacks, hence, the demand for biscuits, cookies surged to quench instant hunger which led to an increase in the cream biscuits and cookies market.
(The author is research director of TechSci Research. He can be reached at sales@techsciresearch.com)
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