Will Britannia Soon Be Selling Ready To Eat Chapatis?

Bangalore based mega food brand Britannia is rumoured to be looking at diversifying into ready to eat parrotas and chapatis. “Since consumers are seeking convenience we might look at adding value in a category like chapatis. There will certainly be a play in this category from our company. It is no longer a distant dream,’’ said Varun Berry, the managing director of Britannia on a chat show.

About Britannia

Britannia is an immensely popular food brand in India that earns over Rs. 6000 crore in revenue and supplies over 3.5 million retail outlets. Britannia traces its roots back to the British Raj, where a baker in Calcutta made tea time biscuits for discerning British high teas.

Today, the brand has products in five categories; biscuits, breads, dairy, cakes and rusk. Popular products include biscuits like Bourbon, Tiger and Marie Gold as well as white sandwich breads and Maska Rusk.

Britannia and Indian flatbreads?

While Britannia already deals with a large amount of bread products, Berry’s comments hint that it soon may be venturing into Indian flat breads.

Berry was reportedly impressed by the success of Bangalore based start-up iD, which creates ready mixed idli and dosa batter. “iD has recently entered the chapati category and just like them we are looking at removing the barriers to a category like chapatis,’’ Berry said according to the Hindu business Line.

Some wonder how open the Indian market will be to readymade flat breads, as chapatis and parrotas are traditionally preferred fresh. However, several brands that manufacture frozen chapatis such as Al Kabeer are doing reasonably well, so Britannia, with its know how about breads may just have hit a grand idea.