S[oo]per: Branded biscuits do roaring business

Sales figures a reflection of growing market.

KARACHI:

Growing demand for branded biscuits has made this a lucrative area, attracting new entrants, as the market has become more competitive.

However, the rising competition has not dampened opportunities available to the expanding industry.

One such example is the performance of Sooper, the signature product of English Biscuit Manufacturers (EBM) – makers of the famous Peek Freans biscuit range. Being the country’s largest selling brand, Sooper continues to grow at an impressive rate.

The annual sales for EBM’s flagship biscuit have crossed the Rs11-billion mark, up by more than 10% compared to the preceding year when it grossed little under Rs10 billion. This is an impressive growth considering it already has a 77% market penetration.



In the last financial year, as many as 430 million family packs were sold, corresponding to almost 20 million Sooper cookies consumed every day, EBM said in a press release on Wednesday while releasing the latest figures for their flagship biscuit.

Sooper has 37% market share in the plain sweet segment, the biggest for any biscuit, according to the AC Nielsen retail audit. It alone accounts for nearly half of EBM’s Rs22-billion annual turnover.

The aforesaid numbers are only one example that indicates the growth of the branded biscuit industry, which had almost no competition till the 1970s. Acording to a recent survey by Nielsen, it is now a Rs43-billion strong industry and growing.

For example, EBM – the largest player in the industry with 45% market share – saw its volumes grow by 15% in fiscal year 2013-2014, according to Shahzain Munir, a member of the company’s brand management team.

The growth was driven by the company’s strong distribution system as it penetrated further into the market, Munir said. The 2013-launch of a new flavour, Peek Freans Sooper Elaichi (cardamon), also made a significant contribution towards the portfolio’s overall growth, he said.

To benefit from this growing market segment, Continental Biscuits – the maker of LU brand – started local production of Oreo, a billion-dollar brand of Mondelez International.

While established players have been investing heavily on R&D, some of the latest entrants are selling copies of the already established brands. However, there is no data available to determine how well they are doing in the market.

“Almost every company has tried replicating Sooper to climb on its success bandwagon. At present, Sooper is exported to 13 countries and we plan on increasing that number soon,” EBM’s marketing head Zulfiqar Ali Ansari said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2014.

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