Unibic eyes over 10 pc market share in cookie segment

Bengaluru-based premium cookie maker Unibic Foods is eyeing a market share of over 10 per cent in the next 12 to 18 months, a top company official said.
The cookie market in India is pegged at Rs 7,500 crore, split equally between the premium and mass segments.
"Our ambition is to have more than 10 per cent market share nationally in the total cookie market over the next 12-18 months," Unibic Foods Managing Director Nikhil Sen told PTI here.
However, he declined to disclose the company's current market share.
Cookies constitute around 30 per cent of the total biscuit market -- which is estimated to be between Rs 25,000- 27,000 crore -- and is growing at twice the rate of the biscuit industry.

Unibic has a strong presence in South and close to 60 per cent of its sales come from the region.

"In the premium-end, in the four markets of South, we have double digit market share. Our presence in the North, East and West is much smaller. We plan to improve our footprint in these three areas that we are not that well available in," Sen said.
The company, backed by private equity investor Peepul Capital, has 21 variants of cookies under five categories with presence in 2,00,000 outlets.
"We have 900 distributors and close to 60 per cent of our volume comes from traditional trade. We will expand by putting feet on the street in the areas we are under weighted, in terms of market share and try and garner market share there. Our target would be to reach half a million outlets in couple of years," he said.

It is also keen to tap opportunities in rural areas and has launched launched three Rs 10 brands for these markets.
Unibic plans to grow its indulgence portfolio by introducing products in certain price points where it is not available and is also eyeing opportunities in the health space.
The company, which has been growing at a CAGR of 50 per cent and 4.5-5 times the market rate, recently added a fifth manufacturing line at its facility at an investment of Rs 12 crore.
"We just invested a fifth line at an investment of Rs 12 crore which takes our capacity to 100 tonnes a day. We are looking at adding at least one new line every year.

"We are still looking at whether we should invest ourselves or look at contract packing facilities. If we were to invest in capacity ourselves, we would need an investment of Rs 50-60 crore in next five years," he said.
It exports its products to 12 countries which contribute to around 5 per cent of the revenues and is looking to expand its footprint to other regions with large Indian diaspora.