Biscuit major Britannia is open to acquisitions in its quest to build a more well-rounded food company that is “sharper, focused and relevant”, chief executive officer and managing director Rakshit Hargave said on Wednesday.
Spelling out his top priorities in his first-ever investor call since taking over in December, Hargave said the firm would look at focused intervention to tackle regional competition, build back Brand Britannia with higher marketing investments, ensure margin expansion with supply-chain efficiencies and drive sustainability in its operations. Organically, Britannia’s Nutrichoice brand which operates on the health platform may be refurbished as part of a broader makeover of the firm’s portfolio of products, Hargave said.
Among areas the company will target from an inorganic perspective are functional foods, he said, which has grown in the last few years amid a thrust on health and wellness. The company is also expected to place a higher thrust on digital-first food brands built either organically or inorganically, he added, as it seeks to tap Gen Z consumers and increase presence on trade channels such as quick commerce and e-commerce.
Inorganic Roadmap
“While Britannia by itself can do a lot of things, there are also a lot of attractive opportunities on the inorganic side that we will evaluate. The idea will be to build a composite product portfolio and we would be open to inorganic opportunities to achieve that,” he said.
Britannia derives over 80% of its close to Rs 18,000-crore revenue from biscuits. The rest comes from adjacencies such as bakery products like croissants, cakes, rusks and dairy products such as flavoured milk and cheese.
On dairy, the company plans to overhaul its cheese portfolio, which is part of its joint venture with French cheese maker Bel Foods and will look to introduce more “distinctive and localised product innovations” designed to address diverse demographic preferences, he said.
GST and Industry Stabilisation
The company is also expected to see more volume-led growth kick in, he said, as the biscuit industry stabilises following GST-led price and grammage corrections in the December quarter. The company reported a 17% year-on-year rise in profit to Rs 680 crore and an 8.2% increase in revenue to Rs 4,970 crore in Q3FY26, both in line with street estimates. Topline growth was evenly split between volume and value growth, the company said.
While Britannia, he said, introduced Rs 5 and Rs 10 packs with higher grammage quickly into trade following GST-led price cuts in September and October, some industry players were staggered in their rollout of these products. GST-led price cuts on Rs 5 and Rs 10 packs had led to a peculiar situation for biscuit majors of packs showing odd pricing of Rs 4.5 and Rs 9 each. This was visible till the end of the December quarter, experts said.
“So, price stabilisation is happening even as we speak. This staggered rollout (by rivals) will be completed by the end of this (March) quarter. Till such time, consumers will continue to see small packs with price points of Rs 4.5 and Rs 9 on them,” Hargave added.