Our strategy is to focus on innovative products in new categories

Nadia Chauhan, joint managing director of Parle Agro, is chalking out fresh strategic plans to take on multinational players in the Indian FMCG industry. The company's strategy includes revamping packaging, export initiatives, extension of rural penetration and manufacturing facilities. For the first time, the company is introducing its apple drink 'Appy Fizz' in cans and returnable glass bottles (RGB) at select metros. A few months ago, the company began introducing its fruit drink Frooti and Bailley Soda in RGB formats in rural markets, to start with. It has recently set up two franchise manufacturing facilities in Nepal and Bangladesh. In an exclusive interview with FE's Lalitha Srinivasan, Chauhan speaks about Parle Agro's growth plans. Edited excerpts:

What are your organic growth plans for Parle Agro?

Every year we expand our distribution network by 20-30%, but this year we have extended it by 40-50%. Accordingly, we boosted our manufacturing capacities. Also, we extended our beverage brands presence by launching for the first time in the RGB format through a franchise network. Currently, we have five RGB manufacturing factories for our brands. We plan to have 20 factories (RGB) in the next two or three years for a national roll out of all our brands in RGB format.

What's going to be your strategy to fight multinational competition?

Our key strategy is to focus sharply on innovative products in new categories. This value continues to be a strong part of our long-term vision and our investment. Our belief in innovation has allowed us to compete with multinational giants and yet gain market leadership position across various categories. We hope to close this year with a 50% growth rate.

Tell us about your new packaging initiatives to promote Parle Agro's brands in rural and urban markets.

We are in the process of launching our brand Appy Fizz in cans and RGB. While the RGB format makes its entry only in small towns and rural markets targeted at the rural youth, cans will be launched only in metros and will strengthen the premium image in urban India. RGB is also an important format for metros, and we will gradually build our presence within metros as well with the new format. Frooti, our flagship brand along with Bailley Soda, Dhishoom and Frio were recently launched in RGB to augment our channel

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