An encouraging bread story
BakeryBiz, Nov-Dec, 2020:
The humble bread has come across as the strongest of the lot. Bread, during the Covid scenario, has helped the industry to wade its way through the difficult phase of lockdown. Supported by an increase in demand, the industry recorded a higher growth rate in comparison to what was seen over the past few years. Is India unfolding its bread story?
Just like most of the other segments got impacted due to Covid-19, the bakery industry too had to suffer its share. Fortunately, the production of bread, being one of the essential items, did not see a blockage due to the lockdown and kept many bakery businesses going during the tough times. In fact, the bread business recorded growth between 20 to 30 percent from across the country, more than doubling its historical annual growth. This, at a time, when many other businesses suffered, gave the much-required life support to the bakery segment.
Bread as a category saw peak sales during the initial phase of complete nationwide lockdown. The primary reason being that it fell under the essential commodities category and found favour with many a customer, who had a limited choice back then. Players who specialised in bread were hugely benefited. At the same time, the bakery-cafes and specialised bakeries which also sold bread as part of their portfolio were forced to shut down as they could not sustain the cost overruns associated with the extended lockdown. Moreover, for standalone bakers it was difficult to survive just by selling bread, unlike bigger industrial players and brand manufacturers like Wibs, Harvest Gold, Modern and others.
While we in India are not exposed to a wide variety of bread, the makers have been innovating and introducing new products into the market, giving their customers a variety of choices. “There is a need for the bakers to innovate. We innovated and created a flat bread called Parozza, which has been well accepted and is doing well. There is a need to continuously strategize and innovate,” said M. Dhinagar Vel, Managing Director, Indian Foods, Madurai.
An interesting change also recorded during and post the lockdown has been an increase of public interest in the healthy eating segment, justified by a substantial increase in the sale of in the multigrain brown bread categories. Even though, this accounts for a very small fragment of the overall bread sales, an increase in this share is suggestive of a promising future.
“We are seeing increased business in comparison to the same time last year. Our bread business has seen a growth of 30 percent in comparison to the same time last year. Expecting the bread market to continue its growth, we are in process of setting up a complete automation plant in Taloja, Maharashtra. Interestingly a growth has also been seen in the multigrain brown bread segment, and in years to come, this variety will increase its market share,” informed Salahuddin Khan, CEO, Kwality Confectionery Bakers India Private Limited.
With companies like Amul and Mother Dairy also entering the bread market, it is sure that bread in India has made its mark and it is on its way to taking more prominence.
