India’s health biscuit market is full of opportunities, but the long-term winners will be brands that can continually innovate to meet customers’ evolving needs for flavour, format, function, and authenticity. The increased health awareness of healthy snacking habits is pushing the consumers to eat healthy biscuits. The young populace is highly influenced by the promotional activities of biscuits being healthy and full of natural and healthy ingredients. The rising sports activities and desire to stay fit further bolsters demand for these biscuits. Indian biscuit brands have gradually introduced a range of healthier options over the years to meet customers' rising health awareness. The industry’s first major response to this was to promote higher fibre intake with the introduction of digestive biscuits. This addressed concerns regarding digestive health as well as encouraging consumers to consider their cholesterol and blood sugar. The next stage of product development was around multi and wholegrain as rising worries over cardiovascular diseases came to the fore. More recently, oat biscuits have become a key area of product development with an awareness of the grain’s benefits being fuelled by the growing popularity of breakfast oats.
According to recently published report of Bonafide Research "India Biscuit Market Outlook, 2027-28", the other types of biscuit market of India is expected to grow with a CAGR of more than 13% over the forecast period. Consumers taste has been changing continuously with time. Cookies have taken the place of other biscuits such as cream, glucose, milk, Marie, non-salted crackers, and so on. With premiumization of biscuits, cookies biscuits are widely purchased by the consumers. Also, with increasing purchasing power, consumers are readily paying for taste and quality products. For example, 'Parle' which previously focused on mass marketing of products especially plain biscuits is now targeting the niche market as well. The introduction of Parle’s 'Milano' cookie is an example of growing demand for center-filled cookies in the country. After which the market was flooded with many varieties and types of centre filled cookie biscuits. The market is rapidly evolving as per consumers changing taste preference towards different variants of biscuits; the market players are also coming up with product innovation and promotional strategies to collect the benefits. Biscuits today stand at a higher value and production level than breads.
Increasing indulgence, health concerns, and familiarity with luxurious taste, which has developed among Indian consumers, have led Indian manufacturers to experiment with a variety of biscuits and cookies. This has also led to higher growth in the premium segment compared to the economic and mid segments of the industry. Mondelez India launched various biscuits segment under the brand name Bournvita Crunchy and has planned more launches across Bournvita and Oreo brands. Taste continues to remain an important factor for our consumers, as they choose snacks to create eating experiences with their families, at home.
Packaging can play an interesting role to become more distinct, expressing the uniqueness of its content and where the pack visuals could be inspired by its origin. Brands can also communicate these benefits to consumers through enhanced transparency and traceability to help the consumer know more about the origin of the product. However, there’s a catch for the packaging printers and converters. Growing variants of biscuits mean more opportunities for packaging firms. As consumers are now looking for something healthy and convenient, they are increasingly looking for packaged products. It has been seen that the food consumption is grown within a very close distance and has popularised multiple food and beverage products.
In India, there are lots of festivals people celebrate. Giving away sweets & chocolates were used to be a tradition earlier, but due to fear of adulteration in sweets, consumers have shift to buy premium cookies in place of sweets. Gifting options pertaining to high-end premium cookies is a key trend prevalent in metro cities owing to its longer shelf life as compared to chocolates and sweets. With growing number of manufacturing facilities, retail outlets, hypermarkets and supermarkets, growth is likely to occur in the cookies biscuit market of the country in the upcoming years.
Major Companies
Major companies operating in the biscuit market of India are ITC Limited, Britannia Industries Limited, Mondelez India Foods Private Limited, Parle Products Private Limited, Surya Food & Agro Limited, Ravi Foods Private Limited, Unibic Foods India Private Limited, Anmol Industries Limited, Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities Limited and United Biscuits Private Limited.
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