Watch out, Parle: Britannia is devising strategy to be India's No.1 biscuit maker

The race to rule the roost in India's biscuit market just got hotter, with Britannia's Nusli Wadia stating he wants to overtake current leader Parle Products as the top biscuit maker in the country.

According to The Economic Times,Wadia told shareholders at the company's 95th annual general meeting on Tuesday that, "The difference with Parle is just 3%, which is not much and we want to bridge it in the next three years."

Yesterday, Britanniareported a 27 percent increase innet profitto Rs 113.66 crore for the first quarter June 30, 2014.The net sales of the company rose to Rs 1,772.63 crore during the quarter, up 15.13 percent against Rs 1,539.62 crore in the same period of previous fiscal.

Commenting on the results, Britannia Industries Managing Director Varun Berry said: "Ourresultsare a reflection of our focus on driving consumer off-take and leveraging fundamental levers of operations to generate sustainable and profitable growth."

More from Corporate Business

Wadia also announced that the company would spend between Rs 150 crore and Rs 200 crore over the next two years to develop products and technology and set up an innovation centre. The Hindu BusinessLine reportsthe company is set to open a Bangalore-based innovation centre within the next 18 months at a cost of Rs 20 crore.

The company's strategy will revolve around a steady pipeline of innovative products and penetrating the rural market. "This year we are going to take a big leap in distribution, raising it as much as 40% across the country and about 25% in rural areas," DNA quotes Berry as saying.

The company is also looking to expand in to neighbouring countries, starting with Bangladesh.

Berry also said that about 90 percent of the new launches will be in the premium segment, according to The Times of India."We don't want to enter any alien product category. We plan to come up with 'hybrid' products, which can be easily bridged with its main product line in one and half years," he said.

In its quest to become top dog, Britannia isn't afraid of losing dead weight. The company said it is considering dropping loss-making brand Daily Bread.

With inputs from PTI