Beverage major Parle Agro plans to grow its offline retail presence by 20% year-on-year, while also strengthening its online channel with relevant pack size offerings and formats. Nadia Chauhan, joint managing director and CMO, speaks with Akanksha Nagar about how it is strengthening its existing brands such as Bailley, Smoodh and Frooti, the several new variants slated for launch this month, opportunities in the dairy beverage segment, and more. Excerpts:
How close is Parle Agro to its topline goal of `10,000 crore by end-2022?
This vision ought to be realised by the end of 2022, else we are definitely achieving our goal by mid-2023. B Fizz and Smoodh were launched during the pandemic (in 2020) and have contributed significantly towards this goal. B Fizz grew to become a `500 crore brand within one year of its launch and it currently dominates the sparkling fruit drink category along with Appy Fizz. The price point of `10 for an 85 ml pack has led to good reach and accessibility for Smoodh, further contributing to our rural expansion.
Due to these factors, coupled with a good summer season which is expected to be an extended one this year, we are targeting a 30-35% growth in sales volumes this year over CY21.
How has your packaged drinking water (PDW) brand Bailley been faring, with reduced consumption outdoors during the pandemic?
Bailley was impacted in the pandemic because the entire consumption of PDW is out-of-home, apart from 20-litre jars. The 500-ml and one-litre segment was deeply impacted. Its growth is strongly dependent on institutional sales and due to the lockdown, travel and tourism, events, weddings and the entire HoReCa (hotel, restaurant, cafe) segment were at a standstill. Post the pandemic, a new trend for 250-ml bottled water has begun and is growing popular. Consumers are looking for value-sized packaged drinking water to offer for indoor events or family gatherings at home as these are hygienic and of the right quantity. We are catering to this demand and have created a new 250-ml SKU for Bailley priced below `10.
How is the company gearing up for this summer season across the portfolio?
We are looking to make Smoodh’s contribution equal to all other brands in the next three years. For our fruit-based beverages, particularly Appy Fizz and B Fizz, we have taken an aggressive distribution focussed approach. Both these are perhaps the only branded products in the sparkling fruit drink category priced at `12. This SKU will help bolster the reach for both Appy Fizz and B Fizz in regional markets, enabling us to achieve our target of reaching four million outlets across India. For Frooti, we have launched one of our biggest OOH (out of home) campaigns to capitalise on outdoor consumption opportunities.
We have new SKUs, new categories, and new variants in the pipeline that will take off from May and continue till next season. We are working towards innovating further in the dairy beverage segment, too.
How do you plan to expand your online and offline retail presence?
We will continue to strengthen our presence in e-commerce through an SKU-based approach with relevant pack size offerings and formats. However, a large part of our business (almost 90%) will continue to come from the offline retail segment which will be our priority channel for our products. We currently have a distribution network of over two million stores across India and our aim is to grow that by 20% year-on-year. We will also be introducing new SKUs which will help increase reach and depth in rural markets.
While we have a presence in 19 countries globally, the contribution from international markets is small. We have established operations in Angola and Bahrain with manufacturing facilities that have been set up through franchise partners, and we are starting one such in Nepal, too.