Parle to target health-conscious consumers with Nutricrunch, phase out Simply Good

Bengaluru: Parle Products Pvt. Ltd is ready to introduce Nutricrunch, a new biscuit brand for health-conscious buyers, a top company executive said. The maker of iconic Parle G glucose biscuits will introduce Nutricrunch Digestive Cookies across the country in the next 15 days, priced at ₹ 20 for a 100g pack.

The brand will be housed under Parle’s Platina division, created last year to handle its premium products and establish a strong foothold in the segment by consolidating its indulgent and aspirational offerings under one umbrella. The launch of Nutricrunch is another step in that direction. The company will also phase out its older health biscuit offerings sold under the Simply Good brand name.

“We’ve already discontinued production of the health range under Simply Good and we will be completely switching to Nutricrunch. While we did have a health offering (under Simply Good), there wasn’t enough focus, and it was sold like any other brand,” said Mayank Shah, category head at Parle.

The company’s new brand is focused more on consumers who consciously opt for healthy offerings, rather than those who choose health once in a while because of price-based promotions. With Nutricrunch’s positioning, Parle will also have more room to expand into the super-premium category, Shah said.

Nutricrunch’s range will include products such as digestive cookies, low-sugar cream crackers, digestive Marie biscuits, etc. Some variants will include indigenous ingredients such as jowar. The range will also include products that target lifestyle issues such as weight management, sugar and cholesterol management and nutrient deficiency.

The health biscuit and cookie segment already has several established labels, from Britannia Industries Ltd’s Nutri Choice range to McVitie’s digestive biscuits and offerings under ITC Ltd’s Sunfeast portfolio. But the category is growing in double digits, and gives biscuit makers more opportunities to tap into the semi-premium and above segments that fetch high margins.

The health biscuit and cookies category has been growing at 12-13% per year and is now a sizeable portion of the market at over ₹ 1,000 crore, according to Parle. Healthy offerings are no longer a fringe category, especially in the urban areas, the company added.

For Parle, it is important to diversify its portfolio into more premium products as a majority of its revenue—both in value and volume terms—still comes from its mass market brand Parle G. While that segment is also growing, better margins and faster growth in future will most likely come from more premium offerings.

To that effect, setting up a separate division to handle its premium products appears to be paying off for Parle. The Platina division is just a year old but is already growing in the high double-digits, Shah said.