cookie maker unibic eyes 10% market share in 12 to 18 months

Premium cookie maker Unibic eying a market share of over 10% in next 12 to 18 months. Cookie market in India is pegged at Rs 7,500 crore, split equally between the premium and mass segments.

Foods Managing Director Nikhil Sen said "Our ambition is to have more than 10 per cent market share nationally in the total cookie market over the next 12-18 months. In the premium-end, in the four markets of South, we have double digit market share. Our presence in the North, East and West is much smaller. We plan to improve our footprint in these three areas that we are not that well available in. We have 900 distributors and close to 60 per cent of our volume comes from traditional trade. We will expand by putting feet on the street in the areas we are under weighted, in terms of market share and try and garner market share there. Our target would be to reach half a million outlets in couple of years. We just invested a fifth line at an investment of Rs 12 crore which takes our capacity to 100 tonnes a day. We are looking at adding at least one new line every year. We are still looking at whether we should invest ourselves or look at contract packing facilities. If we were to invest in capacity ourselves, we would need an investment of Rs 50-60 crore in next five years.”

Cookies constitute around 30 per cent of the total biscuit market which is estimated to be between Rs 25,000-27,000 crore and is growing at twice the rate of the biscuit industry.

Unibic has a strong presence in South and close to 60 per cent of its sales come from the region.

Company, backed by private equity investor Peepul Capital, has 21 variants of cookies under five categories with presence in 2, 00,000 outlets.

Company, which has been growing at a CAGR of 50 per cent and 4.5-5 times the market rate, recently added a fifth manufacturing line at its facility at an investment of Rs 12 crore.