Parle Agro counts on frooti ‘n’ fizz to hit Rs 10\,000 cr turnover

The company believes an aggressive marketing strategy is pivotal to help it capture a greater share and further consolidate its foothold in the region. In an interview with DTNext, Nadia Chauhan, Joint MD & CMO, Parle Agro talks about the plans going forth. 

At the time when we were a Rs 300 cr company, more than 90 per cent of our business came from one brand – Frooti, which defined our identity. After the big Thums-up sell off to Coca Cola in 1993, we attempted to rebuild the organisation from scratch. Our flagship brand Frooti was the first of its kind to enter the market in the tetra pack format and subsequently the PET format. That changed the entire industry in a big way and continues to grow as one of the fastest growing packaging formats. We had targetted Rs 5,000 cr by 2018 and grow in scale. But we did not want to get into the synthetic space, which was declining.

Expanding our portfolio in the fruit-based drinks segment – we started investing in apples early on, and it has grown to become the second largest category in the fruit-based drinks segment across India. Within this space, Appy has more than an 85 per cent of the market share. When one considers Appy Fizz, it increases our market share even more.

During our re-entry in the market, we launched with Appy Fizz, in Bengaluru. It was a unique product as it was a sparkling fruit drink, which had a phenomenal response. Appy will be crossing the Rs 1,000 cr threshold anytime now. Appy is growing at over 80 per cent as a brand, and is the country’s fastest growing beverage. We hope to take it to Rs 4,000 cr in the next two years during which we will double our entire base to Rs 10,000 cr, hopefully by 2022.

Tamil Nadu, and south in general is an important territory. In TN, even today, any product offered in a tetra pack is referred to as a Frooti. Driving growth in TN is critical for Frooti and Appy as brands. We have had a wonderful association with CSK over the past few years – and we had a great brand fit, with something as simple as the team’s jersey colour. Last year, when Dhoni’s daughter offered him a Frooti at the end of a match, it became one of the most viral videos that season. We hoped to recreate that magic this year.

Transforming our sales and distribution channels in a radical way was key to succeeding in the long run. In 2003, we had a retail footprint in about 2 lakh outlets, and in 2018, it became 2 million outlets. In the last five years, we have adopted unusual approaches to brand building and marketing – we invested in design as a brand strategy. We have used brand ambassadors from the Hindi and Telugu film industry as partners in the brand’s journey. Dairy is a huge opportunity, and we have been present in the space previously – we used to have mango and strawberry flavoured milk. But we are not looking at bringing any new products in the segment currently.