Leading dry cell battery maker Eveready Industries India Limited (EIIL), is now foraying into the fast growing confectionary market, which is estimated to be over Rs 9,000 crore, under the brand – Jollies. As starter, Jollies will be rolled out in the fruit chew segment, which is estimated to be nearly Rs 400 crore and is growing at a rapid pace, top company officials said.

The move was prompted by the belief of the company that the fast growing fruit chew segment will double in the next 3-4 years. EIIL expects to become a significant player in this segment by making this under-penetrated category available across urban and rural India through its robust deep distribution network.

“Jollies is the first step to scale up our FMCG portfolio of products. We believe that priced at Re.1, Jollies Fruit Chew will be an attractive offering to Indian consumers who prefer healthier choices. The product being launched has a high percentage of natural fruit pulp, making it a preferred healthier option to pure sugar candy. Candies are a mass market product and can be carried in the Eveready vans reaching a million outlets. This brings in a major competitive advantage for us and we believe we can become a major player in the fast growing confectionery market in the next 3-5 years with only investments required for branding,” said Amritanshu Khaitan, managing director, EIIL.

The company is working on an asset light model and believes it can add significant turnover and profitability with entry into this segment, he added.

With extensive distribution, being one of EIIL’s key strengths, confectionary would provide an opportunity to not only compliment the current basket of products and give an opportunity to offer value added products to the company’s vast up-country distribution. Eveready has an extensive distribution network of over 4000 distributors and reaches towns with population of 5000 or more. Jollies will also provide a quality offering to rural consumers, who have limited access to branded confectionary and are dependent on unorganised and often poor quality products.