Parle Products hikes biscuit prices by 5-10% as input cost soars

Leading food company Parle Products has increased the prices between 5 and 10 per cent across categories as the input cost has gone up substantially after the rise in prices of raw materials, such as sugar, wheat and edible oil, said a company official.

In the biscuit segment, Parle, which owns popular brands such as Parle G, Hide & Seek and KrackJack, has increased the prices by 5-10 per cent and 7-8 per cent in the rusk and cake segments, respectively.

The price of its most popular glucose biscuit Parle G is now up by 6-7 per cent.

"We have taken a 5-10 per cent price hike," Parle Products Senior Category Head Mayank Shah told PTI.

The company has increased the prices of biscuits and other products above Rs 20 and has reduced the grammage of below it to retain the attractive price points, he added.

This is the first hike by Parle in this fiscal. Earlier, in the January-March 2021 quarter also, the company had gone for a price hike.

"This is after considering the inflationary pressure on the input cost that we are facing. Most of the companies are facing it," he said.

The company is facing inflationary pressure as prices of input materials such as edible oil have gone up by 50-60 per cent compared to last year, he said.

"If we look at wheat and sugar, both are up by 8-10 per cent compared to last year," Shah added.

Earlier this month, rival firm Britannia Industries said it is witnessing "unprecedented inflation" in market prices of palm oil, industrial fuel and packaging materials and had also initiated necessary price increases across the portfolio.

Several FMCG companies operating in the food space are facing the inflationary trend in commodity prices along with increased transportation changes due to an increase in fossil fuels prices.

Most of them have revised the prices by passing on most of it to the consumers to retain the margin levels.