It?s time for a fresh round of price hikes in the Indian FMCG industry, as rising input costs force food companies to nudge prices higher and tinker with grammage. Coca-Cola was the first off the block, raising the prices of Thums Up, Sprite and Coca-Cola (2 litre) from Rs 55 to 58. Even as Parle Products is implementing price hikes for its flagship biscuit brand Parle-G, Britannia Industries Ltd (BIL) has reduced the grammage of its mass-market biscuit brand Tiger without increasing price. BIL has just hiked the prices of its biscuit brand NutriChoice Digestive (250 g) from Rs 38 to 45, an 18% increase.

FMCG major ITC Foods is also likely to increase the price of its biscuit brand Sunfeast by 7-8%. After raising prices of its packaged milk brand Amul Taaza last month, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) has increased the price of its butter milk brand Amul Masti from Rs 8 to Rs 10, a 25% hike.

?To offset the higher input costs, FMCG majors have no choice but to raise prices. We expect to see further price hikes in the next two months,? said an industry analyst based in Mumbai.

When contacted by FE, Coca-Cola India?s spokesperson said: ?The price increase is being implemented in a phased manner in different geographies. We have raised prices of our brands by 9-15% to counter the rise in commodity prices and input costs.?

Punita Lal, executive director, marketing, PepsiCo India said: ?PepsiCo has taken a price hike of around 14 to 16% across categories to tide over the rise in input costs.? Responding to an email query, an ITC Foods spokesperson confirmed that the company was likely to increase prices of its biscuit brand Sunfeast by 7-8%. At present, Sunfeast mainly operates in 10 categories such as Marie Light, Golden Bakery, Glucose, Cream, Snacks and Sweet ?n? Salt, among others. A pack of Sunfeast Marie Light now costs Rs 10 for 147g. Effectively, after the price hike, you may have to shell out 80 paise more for the same amount. On Parle?s revised prices, Praveen Kulkarni, marketing director, Parle Products said: ?We are in the process of raising prices of our brand `Parle Glucose?. We will be increasing prices of our other brands too in the next few months.?

Meanwhile, other players in the market too are looking at price hikes, as food price inflation continues to hover over the FMCG industry.