‘Big opportunity’ in SR 1 bn biscuit market

Saudi Arabia is one of the primary emerging markets for top biscuits maker Britannia and it sees big opportunities in the Kingdom because trade grew faster than expected within a short span of time, says Managing Director Vinita Bali.
The Kingdom, with its SR 1 billion biscuits market, takes up almost half of the GCC share for this category, she said.
“Saudi Arabia is a critical market. We see a big opportunity from a consumer point of view,” she told Arab News.
Bali said Britannia currently operates in three key segments such as cookies, digestives and wafers.
“We are still small but growing very well,” she said.
But Bali stressed that Britannia is one of the top 8 companies in the biscuit business in Saudi Arabia.
Bali unveiled plans to what she termed as “localize” Britannia’s product portfolio in the Kingdom based on consumer insights.
It aims to invest more in research and development to achieve this objective.
“My visit here is really to come and see very important emerging market for us which is Saudi Arabia,” said the top executive.
“We entered this market about little over two years ago and we have seen very encouraging trends of growth and share.”
Bali said: We have got a great partnership with Binzagr company who are our distributors in Saudi Arabia.”
She added: “We actually believe that this partnership with their local knowledge, their competency that they bring to this partnership and the range of products that which we have will actually be able to serve the interest of the local consumers very well. “
Overall, Britannia is a major player in all the segments within Saudi Arabia (creams, cookies, wafers, healthy biscuits, salted crackers and tea biscuits), spanning the entire biscuit category.
Britannia has a total of 12 brands in Saudi Arabia (Wafers, digestive, sugar-free digestive, Good Day, 50-50, Maska Chaska, Bourbon, Jim Jam, Marie Gold, Vita Marie Gold, Rusk and Nutro Wafers).
Bali said: “We are focusing on the Saudi market and we have future plans for operations — expansion, new products development.”
Bali said: “We are in the process of introducing breakthrough packaging innovations to keep our products fresh and safe in the extreme weather conditions in the region.”
She added: “Our whole focus is to serve our consumers better by delivering the best possible product with the highest quality.”
Bali said Britannia’s business in Saudi Arabia had grown more than four times in the last three years.
This growth has been achieved across multiple segments within the biscuit category and spanning all regions within the Kingdom.
Britania has been operating in the GCC for more than 10 years, said Bali.
With plants in Dubai and Sohar in Oman, Britannia has more than 500 staff in manufacturing, sales and distribution in the region.
Britannia’s market share is among the ‘top 5’ in GCC — UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar — and in North Africa.
She claimed that Britannia brands are well known and trusted by consumers.
Britania Good Day is second biggest player in cookies category in the Kingdom and is growing at a CAGR of more than four times than the overall cookies segment.
Among segments within the biscuit category, Britannia has been advancing at almost three times the category growth rate.
When asked whether Britannia is planning manufacturing facilities in Saudi Arabia, Bali said: “If we need to build a factory here we will build. Right now the rate of growth we are seeing is we are able to meet the requirements from our manufacturing bases in India.”
She added: “In India we got about 70 manufacturing locations. So we will serve the market in best possible manner to do whatever it takes.”
Although Britannia does not have any immediate plan to build a factory here, right now, she stressed that “what we see here is that growth of our business is very encouraging. It is good.”
Bali also said: “The partnership with the Binzagr group is very critical in the growth and development of the market and we are seeing that shape up quite nicely.”
About nutro products, Bali said there are specially formulated products for people with diabetics and for people who want to be careful in the Britania portfolio in India.
“So we have a big brand called nutro choice and within the nutroq choice range. We make nutro choice diabetic-friendly products. Right now, we have not launched these products in Saudi Arabia, but certainly we are looking at that.”