Britannia is one of the best known FMCG companies for biscuits, bakery and dairy products in India. The wide variety of products with well-known brand names like Good day, Marie, Cheese, Butter etc. make up the core product portfolio of Britannia. Of course, the distribution of Britannia is far and wide.
Let us look into the Overview of Britannia and then we can move on to the SWOT Analysis of Britannia.
Content Outline
Overview of Britannia
Britannia Industries Limited is an Indian company specialising in the food industry and is part of the Wadia Group headed by Nusli Wadia. It was established in 1892 and is headquartered in Kolkata. It is one of the oldest existing companies in India and is best known for its biscuit products. The company distributes its Britannia and Tiger brand biscuits, pieces of bread and dairy products across India and abroad. Since its acquisition by the Wadia Group in the early 1990s, the company has been embroiled in several controversies related to its management. However, it still has a large market share and is profitable.
The company was founded in 1892 by a group of British businessmen with an investment of ₹295. Initially, the biscuits were manufactured in a small house in central Kolkata. Later, the company was taken over by the Gupta brothers, especially Nalin Chandra Gupta, a lawyer, and operated under the name “V.S. Brothers”. In 1918, C.H. Holmes, an English businessman based in Calcutta, was taken on as a partner and The Britannia Biscuit Company Limited (BBCo) was formed.
The Mumbai factory was set up in 1924 and Peek Freans UK acquired a majority stake in BBCo. During World War, the biscuits were in high demand II, which boosted the company’s sales. The company name was changed to what is now “Britannia Industries Limited” in 1979. In 1982, the American company Nabisco Brands, Inc. acquired the parent company of Peek Freans and became a major foreign shareholder.
Did You Know?
Britannia Bread is the largest brand in the organized bread market with annual sales of over 1 million tons in volume and Rs. 450 crores in value
SWOT Analysis Of Britannia
The SWOT Analysis of Britannia includes its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. And in this reading of the SWOT Analysis of Britannia, we will examine this beauty and wellness company in terms of its internal and external factors.
S Stands For Strengths ( Internal Factor )
- Market leader in the bakery: Britannia Industries Limited (BIL) is a major player in the Indian food market and market leader in the bakery category with a market share of around 30% in the industry. Britannia offers both a delicious and healthy range of biscuits, pieces of bread, cakes, rusks and a range of dairy products like cheese, curd and specially formulated dairy-based functional drinks.
- Brand Portfolio: Britannia is the only company in India that offers bakery products to all income groups, thereby securing a large share of consumers’ wallets. Britannia holds a market share of nearly 30% in India in the biscuit category.
- Long Legacy: 123 years ago, an intrepid baker made a batch of delicious, golden brown biscuits in a small house in the centre of Kolkata (Calcutta). These biscuits were meant for the officers of the British Raj and their families, people who were used to the high standards of English tea time.
Over the past century and a quarter, Britannia has offered Indian consumers a range of fresh, nutritious and flavorful products. Today, Britannia is a leading food company in India with a turnover of over Rs. 6000 crores, supplying products in over 5 categories through 3.5 million retail outlets to more than half of India’s population.
- High brand recall: due to the company’s presence in a range of bakery products like biscuits, rusks, cakes and dairy products like milk, butter and cheese etc., its visibility on the shelves is high. Also, their targeted marketing and advertising campaigns resulted in positive word of mouth and high TOMA (Top of Mind Awareness).
- Comprehensive product portfolio: The company has various offerings for different income groups with a wide range in all product categories such as Tiger, Milk Bikis, Good Day, Bourbon, Little Hearts, Crackers and Nutria-Choice.
- Market Penetration and Distribution: By being present in the market with such a large number of products and providing them through a robust distribution system, Britannia has penetrated every nook and corner of the country.
W Stands For Weaknesses ( Internal Factor )
- Overdependence on the biscuit industry: the biscuit industry accounts for 75% of Britannia’s sales. Since they are also the market leader but rely too much on this industry, their long term business life is affected.
- No overseas presence: apart from India, Britannia also has subsidiaries in Dubai and Oman. However, the total export of goods is far below the actual potential.
- Various brands have become commodities over time: Glucose biscuits like Bourbon & Britannia have become commodities over time, as in the case of “Bourbon” Parle has also introduced “Parle Bourbon” biscuits. When the brand name is used in the same way by other companies, it leads to confusion among the customers and hence loss of sales.
- Weakening dairy sector: The dairy sector contributes only 5 per cent to the company’s total revenues.
Also, Read SWOT Analysis of HUL in a Simplified Way.
O Stands For Opportunities ( External Factor )
- Changing lifestyle and demand for healthier food: Improvement in literacy rate, health awareness, changing lifestyle and increase in disposable income are influencing the demand for healthy food.
- Emerging dairy industry: as organoleptic characteristics (aroma, taste, and colour) shape the dairy industry, improving dairy products can help the company increase its market share and reposition itself in the dairy products market.
- Overseas market: expanding the business to other overseas markets can help the company to become a global player in the food sector.
- Product line: Expanding the product line may be beneficial to Britannia, as the company has loyal customers.
T Stands For Threats ( External Factor )
- Competition: with an increasing number of vendors (local vendors – Anmol, Priya & national vendors – ITC, Parle) it becomes very difficult for the company to differentiate itself from others. There is also a risk of counterfeit products destroying the brand image in the market.
- Reach is a major threat: The company needs to increase its reach in rural areas as the availability of the product can be a major threat.
- Buyer power: In a highly diversified consumer goods market, where many brands are promising different benefits, it is very difficult for consumers to get attached to a particular brand. This leads to brand switching where consumers have the power to choose a brand based on various factors such as availability, recommendations from reference groups, preferences and price.
- Price of raw materials: rising prices of raw materials lead to further increase in the price of the final product. Further increase in price leads to a decrease in profitability or less consumption.
SWOT Analysis Of Britannia Key Takeaways
The SWOT Analysis of Britannia highlights where the brand currently stands and its threats in this era. Following the detailed SWOT Analysis of Britannia Here are a Few Important Key Points.
- Senior in the Industry
- Huge line of Products
- Strong Brand Image
Suggestions:
Following the detailed SWOT Analysis of Britannia, we have a few suggestions from Business Mavericks:
- Diary products
- Candies products can attract children.
Britannia STP & USP
- Segment: People who need and consume bakery and dairy products.
- Target Group: Middle and upper-middle-class families, especially children
- Positioning: India’s leading manufacturer of high-quality and healthy biscuits, baked goods and dairy products
Britannia USP
India’s brand of bakery and dairy products known for their quality
Britannia Products
- Britannia 50-50
- Britannia Bourbon
- Britannia Cheese
- Britannia Good Day
- Britannia Little Hearts
- Britannia Marie Gold
- Britannia Tiger
Britannia Competitors
- Parle Products was founded in British India in 1929 by the Chauhan family of Vile Parle, Bombay. Parle began manufacturing biscuits in 1939, and in 1947, when India became independent, the company launched an advertising campaign touting its glucose biscuits as an Indian alternative to British biscuits. The Parle brand became well known in India through the success of products such as Parle-G biscuits and cold drinks such as Gold Spot, Thumbs Up and Frooti.
- Nestlé S.A. is a Swiss multinational food and beverage company headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest food company in the world by sales and other metrics as of 2014. It ranked 64th in the 2017 Fortune Global 500 list and 33rd in the 2016 Forbes Global 2000 list of largest publicly traded companies.Nestlé’s products include baby food, medical foods, bottled water, breakfast cereals, coffee and tea, confectionery, dairy, ice cream, frozen foods, pet food, and snacks. Twenty-nine of Nestlé’s brands have annual sales of over CHF1 billion (about US$1.1 billion), including Nespresso, Nescafé, Kit Kat, Smarties, Nesquik, Stouffer’s, Vittel and Maggi. Nestlé owns 447 factories, operates in 189 countries and employs about 339,000 people. Nestlé is one of the major shareholders of L’Oreal, the world’s largest cosmetics company.
- Mother Dairy is a division of the National Dairy Development Board under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India, which manufactures, markets and sells milk, milk products and other edible products. Dairy products include cultured products, ice cream, paneer, and ghee under the Mother Dairy brand. The company also sells edible oils, fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen vegetables and processed foods such as fruit juices, jams, pickles, etc. Mother Dairy was established in 1974 as a division of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB).
- Amul (The Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union) is an Indian dairy cooperative based in Anand in the Indian state of Gujarat. It was established in 1946 and is a cooperative brand owned by a cooperative society, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF), which is now jointly owned by 3.6 million (3.6 million) milk producers in Gujarat, and the apex body of 13 District Milk Unions spread across 13,000 villages in Gujarat. Amul has kick-started India’s White Revolution, which has made the country the world’s largest producer of milk and dairy products.Kaira Union introduced the brand “Amul” to market its range of products. The word ‘Amul’ is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘Amulya’ which means ‘priceless’ or precious (a name suggested by the then Principal of Agriculture College, Dr Maganbhai Patel) and was established in 1946 through the efforts of Tribhuvanda’s Kishibhai Patel. The establishment of Amul was an important contribution to the white revolution in India.
- Patanjali Ayurved (commonly known as Patanjali) is an Indian multinational consumer packaged goods company based in Haridwar, India. It was founded by Ramdev and Balkrishna in 2006. The company is headquartered in Delhi, with manufacturing facilities and headquarters located in the industrial area of Haridwar. The company manufactures cosmetics, ayurvedic medicine and food products.
