ITC’s diet plan

When ITC started selling packaged foods products in 2001, few would have thought that the food division would one day become a Rs.4000-crore-plus business. Growing at a rate of 20% annually, today ITC’s foods division makes a range of packaged food products, from instant noodles to biscuits to ready-to-eat meals to staples. Its biggest success perhaps has been in the biscuits category. According to market estimates, the overall size of the biscuit category is about R20,000 crore, and ITC is third in place right after market leaders Britannia and Parle, with about 11% market share. In August this year, ITC became the leader in the cream biscuits category, surpassing players such as Britannia, with 25% market share. The size of the cream biscuit segment is around R5000-6000 crore. Under the mother brand Sunfeast, the company has a slew of biscuit brands — Sunfeast Milky Magic, Marie Light, Dark Fantasy, Glucose, Dream Cream and many more. In 2010, the company entered the R2000-3000-crore instant noodles category where Nestle’s Maggi had ruled for decades, with its Sunfeast Yippee! brand and soon cornered a 10% share. It has also garnered a foothold in the R200-crore nascent instant pasta market with its Sunfeast Pasta Treat brand garnering

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