NIFT PG 2014 Question Paper with solutions

  After ruling the mass glucose segment, Parle is tilting its portfolio towards premium biscuits, with a special focus on the cream segment. With growth rates at 25 per cent in the premium cream segment, Parle’s nearest competitor, Britannia, dominates with a 30 per cent share, along with new competitors such as Kraft Foods (Oreo) and ITC also rapidly gaining share in the segment. Getting volumes and market share at the premium end of the cream segment is now priority for the Mumbai-based company. Unlike the glucose segment, it is yet to make a mark in growing segments such as cream biscuits.Competition has been increasing with new players such as ITC and Kraft Foods increasing their offerings in this segment.Today Parle has a 25 per cent share in the cream segment while new players such as ITC have already cornered 15 per cent share along with Kraft Foods’ Oreo brand garnering 10 per cent share. Parle has recently relaunched a premium glucose variant with new packaging. The purpose is to get better margins in the glucose segment. Despite the slowdown, biscuit as a category has been relatively unaffected even at the premium end. There continues to be good growth for biscuits and thankfully profitability has not been affected. Even prices have been kept on hold despite input cost inflation. Major ingredients such as wheat flour, edible oil and sugar used in biscuits have stabilised in the past year. Prices of ingredients used in biscuits have remained stable and we are not looking forward to raising prices.