The two major players Britannia and Parle were busy biting chunks of the national market among themselves, but with ITC foraying into the biscuit segment, a lot of that changed. In July 2003, ITC made a foray into the biscuits market by launching the Sunfeast range of biscuits. Since then, Sunfeast biscuits have always stood for quality and are known for offering innovative and wholesome range of biscuits.
It launched products such as orange-flavoured Marie, Marie light and butterscotch-flavoured cream biscuits initially. In 2004, the company came up with new biscuits such as Sunfeast Milky Magic. More recently, it also has launched the Sunfeast Snacky and Sunfeast Golden Bakes.
Sunfeast connotes happiness, contentment, satisfaction and pleasure. Within a short span of time, Sunfeast has well-established its presence in almost all categories of biscuits and is also a key player in the pasta and instant noodles segments.
After its inception in the biscuit market, Britannia’s market share dropped from 35.8 per cent in 2004-05 to 30.5 per cent in May 2006. Parle’s share too dropped from 42.2 per cent to 38.4 per cent in the same period. Even Priyagold has seen a minor dip from 6.4 per cent to 5 per cent. ITC’s Sunfeast has been a big gainer with its share increasing from 2.7 to 6.7 per cent.
Sunfeast biscuits straddle all segments of the market led by Dark Fantasy at the premium end. High quality along with exciting innovations has helped drive this category. In addition, the launch of the Dream Cream range of biscuits in two exciting and innovative dual cream formats further reinforces ITC’s commitment to continuously delight the consumer.
The portfolio has been further expanded with Sunfeast Yippee instant noodles. Sunfeast Yippee is available in three lip smacking variants – Classic Masala, Magic Masala and the newly introduced Chinese Masala which gives tasty Chinese aroma. It is posing a major competition to Maggi and other competitors.
ITC is one of India’s foremost private sector companies with a market capitalisation of US $45 billion and a turnover of US $7 billion. It has been included among the World’s Best Big Companies and the World’s Most Reputable Companies by Forbes magazine and also among India’s Most Valuable Companies by Business Today.
In 2010, ITC was ranked 6th amongst global consumer goods companies in sustainable value creation during 2005-09. In 2013, ITC was ranked the third most admired company in India by Fortune.
