Britannia enters the next 100 as a Global, Total Foods company

Britannia Industries Limited recently marked the 100th anniversary of its founding in 1918. To celebrate the milestone, the company revealed a new brand identity & philosophy, illustrating the company’s vision to become the ‘future of food’ – a global total foods company. In addition, the company announced that it will launch 50 new products in the next 12 months and enter new and exciting categories including croissants, cream wafers and enhance product offerings in existing categories.

 

The Company’s play in value- added Dairy, will also receive a boost like never before. “Through the last 100 years, Britannia has brought smiles and delight to many Indians and is one of the most trusted names in every Indian household. Our focus on consistent- everyday execution, a sharp focus on staying relevant to consumers and a keen innovation mindset has made this journey an exciting one. We will continue to delight India with healthy and exciting food products. As we take decisive strides in becoming a Total Foods Company, we will also step up our plans to take Britannia to the globe” said Varun Berry, Managing Director, Britannia Industries Limited. “With a growing appetite for innovative and differentiated product offerings, today’s consumer is more discerning, is making healthier choices, and expects unerring quality. This drives our relentless focus on delivering consumer delight,” he added.

 

A brand new Britannia, reaffirming goodness and excitement

As a part of its centenary celebrations, Britannia unveiled its new logo that reflects its ability to thrive in the age of digital consumers as well as showcase the brand’s commitment to excitement and goodness quotient. The Company’s logo has undergone a change after 20 years and seeks to be forward looking, emphasizing the limitless opportunities that Britannia aims to explore while continuing to build upon the success of its power brands and transition into a global total foods company.

 

The new logo was developed in close consultation with leading global branding agency, Interbrand. Substantial research was conducted to develop the unifying logo that reflects accessibility, well-being and excitement.

 

The mega centenary year celebrations will roll out in August with a multi- media campaign. The TV campaign celebrates Britannia’s 100-year anniversary with the uniquely Indian idiom ‘Sau saal jiyega’ and is a tribute to the love and trust India has bestowed on the brand.

 

“Britannia has been on a fantastic trajectory both in terms of business and addressing Indian consumer needs,” said Ali Harris Shere, VP – Marketing, Britannia Industries Limited. “As we step into the next big phase, it’s time for our brand to be future ready and represent the company we aim to be – one that is exciting, offers goodness and meets consumers where they are. With this new brand identity, we look to elevate the brand through a design that is simple and elegant, yet uniquely Britannia. The 100-year campaign, set to roll out soon, is our way of expressing gratitude to the secret ingredient of our success – our consumers,” he added.

 

At 100, Britannia will strengthen its core business, biscuits Britannia biscuits will see an array of innovations and relaunches across multiple categories. The plans include new product formats and democratization of premium offerings. A new Visual Identity will be rolled out in 3 lac retail locations in the country. The design builds a compelling story through bespoke imagery for each brand.

 

At 100, Britannia aims for macro-snacking entry and leadership In the centenary year alone, Britannia’s innovative launches in Cakes will be more than ever done before since its launch. The Company, while strengthening its offerings in its leadership space of biscuits, announced a range of innovations in Cakes and Rusk, with formats as diverse as Swiss rolls, Muffins and Multi-grain rusk.

 

The JV with Greek croissant maker, Chipita has been formalized, and the first batch of center filled croissants will hit the market by the end of the year. Launches in other macro-snacking categories are imminent and an exciting pipeline lies ahead.

 

Creating new paradigms in the Dairy sector at 100 year milestone

As a strategic thrust to strengthen back end integration to its Dairy business, Britannia recently commenced a milk procurement programme in Ranjangaon, Maharashtra. This is the site of the Company’s up and coming, manufacturing facility, which will be its largest and most comprehensive to date. The program has piloted with 8 milk collection centres spread across 8 villages and touching the lives of 650 farmers. The Company aims to scale up to 30+ centres by end of FY 2018. Britannia dairy will be launching a slew of value added products across Cheese, Milk Drinks and Dairy Whitener categories in the next 2 quarters.

 

At 100 years, R & D and Innovation 2.0 becomes the bedrock of our future strategies

As the company gears up for the next 100 years, our cutting-edge R&D team is set to foster breakthrough innovation and create powerful sources of sustainable competitive advantage. The 55,000-square foot state-ofthe-art R&D centre in Bangalore has already helped accelerate product innovation in new categories. The Company has seen a 10 fold increase in absolute innovation delivery in the last 4 years.

 

At 100 years, 1 new Geography a year becomes a reality: Bringing Indian flavours to the global palette

The company announced its plans to set up one of the biggest manufacturing centres in Nepal, the Company’s first outside India with an investment of Rs 55 crores. The recently inaugurated factory in Mundra is Britannia’s first move towards setting up a solely exports focused facility in India. With a sizeable investment of Rs 155 Cr, the state-of-the-art facility is fitted with world class infrastructure and imported technology and has an annual production capacity of 28000 MT.

 

At 100 years, strong in-house manufacturing footprint reduces variable cost by almost 30% and drives competitive advantage

With end-to-end automated world-class facilities built for domestic and international markets, Britannia brings down cost of manufacturing and strengthens the paradigm of Least Cost Manufacturer. Britannia also leads the food space in terms of own installed capacity. The Company said that assured quality and reduced distance traveled to market were a positive outcome of a well distributed and owned manufacturing footprint across the country. This will also give Britannia a head-start in its vision of occupying the Total foods space. 

 

At 100, we are driving sustainability for a better tomorrow

Britannia is the first Indian Food Company to have removed transfats from its entire portfolio. The Company has also taken the lead in providing micro-nutrient fortification in 47% of its products. Within a short span of time, Britannia has reduced the sugar content by 6 % per serving and has committed to reduce it further by 5% by 2020. Similar efforts are being made on the Sodium content as well.

 

On the manufacturing front, over 1/3rd of energy consumed is from renewable sources. 80% of the total heat generated for baking will be using clean, renewable fuel by the end of this year. In-house development of new generation high efficiency ovens has been rolled out to cover 42 % of production which has enabled a 25% reduction in fuel consumption. All new plants are designed for Zero liquid discharge.

 

Women comprise 30% of the overall manufacturing workforce, and Britannia will strive to consistently provide equal opportunities for women to enter the work stream, thereby helping their families and the larger community as well.