Britannia, which last week announced a management rejig putting COO Varun Berry in charge of Indian operations, has always believed in quickly identifying new trends in the food and beverage segment.
The company’s managing director, Vinita Bali, who will now manage international operations at the Rs 6,200-crore (Rs 62-billion) company, wasted no time in trading up consumers in biscuits upon taking charge of the company in 2005, fortifying existing bakery products with nutrients in keeping with the growing health consciousness among Indians and adding new products to the firm’s portfolio such as snacks, breakfast products, milk-based health drink, flavoured yoghurt, etc.
Berry is expected to keep the momentum going as the Bangalore-based company looks to transform itself from a bakery-cum-dairy major into a well-rounded packaged F&B company.
In a statement last week, Chairman Nusli Wadia said, “We are preparing Britannia for high growth by catering to the changing food habits of the evolving Indian consumer and pursuing opportunities for growth in the overall food domain.”
The $26.91-billion (Rs 1.48 lakh crore) Danone, which derives 38 per cent of revenues from emerging markets, on the other hand, has opted to focus its attention on its areas of strength including water, dairy products, probiotics and nutrition.
While joint ventures and acquisitions have been the way forward for it in water, probiotics and nutrition, in dairy -- its biggest vertical globally -- the firm has launched products on its own including curd, flavoured yoghurt, lassi and UHT Milk in cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi-National
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