We Operate With The Mindset Of Saving Every Penny

Having completed 100 years recently, Britannia is looking at a re-imagined start. The company has completed a rebranding exercise to leverage new market opportunities and its leadership is exploring ways for pan-India dominance and becoming a global foods company. Varun Berry, MD, Britannia Industries, spoke to Ruhail Amin about how Britannia is aiming for a bigger market share. Excerpts:

What was the inspiration behind the massive rebranding exercise?

We researched this for almost a year and when we went to the consumers, what came out was like a fulcrum. We have excitement on one side and goodness on the other and we were perfectly balanced. All other food brands in India would tilt on one side. What was required was modernisation. With that insight, we started to evaluate things and started an alienation test with current consumers. It showed that they liked it. Most of the current consumers also thought that this was a more modern logo. That gave us the confidence that this is the right way forward.

What would you call the biggest factors that have helped in the longevity of brand Britannia?

With a humble start, what we have been able to do is fairly rare. We have made sure that we keep the structure tight and we don’t build structures that are not required. We are a fairly large organisation; Rs 10,000 crore is a fairly large organisation, but it seems like a small family. It does not look like that we are working in a large company. These are the things that we have been able to create and I feel proud of it.

What we have also done is to focus on one part of the business and built that into a very large business. Biscuits are a large part of our business and, in fact, five years ago, there were businesses we had gotten into, which we shut since we thought there is so much to do in the core business.