Mumbai, Oct 29 (PTI) Bengaluru-based premium cookie makerUnibic Foods is eyeing a market share of over 10 per cent inthe 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 marketshare nationally in the total cookie market over the next12-18 months," Unibic Foods Managing Director Nikhil Sen toldPTI here.
However, he declined to disclose the company's currentmarket share.
Cookies constitute around 30 per cent of the totalbiscuit market -- which is estimated to be between Rs 25,000-27,000 crore -- and is growing at twice the rate of thebiscuit industry.
Unibic has a strong presence in South and close to 60per cent of its sales come from the region.
"In the premium-end, in the four markets of South, wehave double digit market share. Our presence in the North,East and West is much smaller. We plan to improve ourfootprint in these three areas that we are not that wellavailable in," Sen said.
The company, backed by private equity investor PeepulCapital, has 21 variants of cookies under five categories withpresence in 2,00,000 outlets.
"We have 900 distributors and close to 60 per cent ofour volume comes from traditional trade. We will expand byputting feet on the street in the areas we are under weighted,in terms of market share and try and garner market sharethere. Our target would be to reach half a million outlets incouple of years," he said.
It is also keen to tap opportunities in rural areas andhas launched launched three Rs 10 brands for these markets.
Unibic plans to grow its indulgence portfolio byintroducing products in certain price points where it is notavailable and is also eyeing opportunities in the healthspace.
The company, which has been growing at a CAGR of 50 percent and 4.5-5 times the market rate, recently added a fifthmanufacturing line at its facility at an investment of Rs 12crore.
"We just invested a fifth line at an investment of Rs 12crore which takes our capacity to 100 tonnes a day. We arelooking at adding at least one new line every year.
"We are still looking at whether we should investourselves or look at contract packing facilities. If we wereto invest in capacity ourselves, we would need an investmentof Rs 50-60 crore in next five years," he said.
It exports its products to 12 countries which contributeto around 5 per cent of the revenues and is looking to expandits footprint to other regions with large Indian diaspora. PTIDS NRBABM.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.