?Haldiram grown twice the size of Hindustan Unilever's packaged food division

PepsiCo, grappling with a slumping soda business, got another boost from its food operations. The maker of Mountain Dew drink posted second quarter profit that topped analysts’ estimates, helped by strong sales of Frito-Lay chips and Quaker oatmeal, according to a statement on Tuesday.

Core earnings per share were $1.61, 9 cents above analysts’ consensus estimate. Results sent company shares up 1.6% in early trade. Stock closed Monday at $107.76 in New York, down 10% for the year. PepsiCo, like rival Coca-Cola, is looking beyond sugary soda to drive growth as consumers become more health-conscious. Chief executive officer Indra Nooyi has said fixing the struggling North American beverage unit is a top priority, but in the meantime the company is getting a boost from its food brands.

Consumer giants ranging from PepsiCo to Nestle are wrestling with changing tastes as shoppers turn away from sugary foods and drinks and seek out healthier fare. Consumption of carbonated soft drinks fell to a 32-year low in the US last year, according to Beverage-Digest, a trade publication.

While chips have been less affected than sodas, PepsiCo has also introduced organic versions of some big snack brands, in addition to buying startup competitors.

With the launch of its B2C brand ‘Popodax’ that has a range of flavoured appalams, Lanson Group has confirmed its venture into ready-to-eat snacks segment in the Indian market with the

“The products will be available in mom and pop stores, clubs and e-commerce websites such as Amazon from May, at packs worth Rs 10 and Rs 30. The group exports appalams and variants to the UK, holding 80% market share. It also exports to the US and Australia,” says Lankalingam, chairman and innovation head, Lanson Value Added Services.

The company also supplies to FMCG brands globally, manufacturing variants of the snack in five manufacturing units spread across Chennai and Thiruchendur.

“Lanson alone makes 1.5 million appalams a day for its global customers. With the vision of ‘consumer loyalty nourished by consumer delight’ our aim is to put a smile on the faces of consumers of every age by providing them innovative snacks for their unmet needs. This is one of the main reasons, we have decided to launch our own brand of ready-to-eat mini appalams – Popodax,” added Lankalingam.

“Popodax will initially be offered in Tamil Nadu markets in stages, beginning with markets such as Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Salem and Trichy and will be available in retail shops from May 2018.Within the next six months, the brand will be available in about 50 towns in Tamil Nadu and will be present in 20,000 outlets within the first year. With Popodax, we would like to garner about 2% of the ready to eat snack segment in the outlets that we will be present” Popodax will be available in 6 SKU’s- 3 flavours - Classic, Tomato & Chili, and Sour Cream & Onion,” added B Nandakumar, chief mentoring officer, LVAS.

Indian snacks food company, Prataap Snacks has entered the category of sweet snacks market through its wholly owned subsidiary with the launch of its new brand ‘Rich Feast’, it said in a statement. The first product under the new brand is ‘Yum Pie’, a three-layered snack with sponge cake, flavoured jam, and chocolate.

The company has set up a fully automated manufacturing plant with its wholly owned subsidiary pure n Sure Food Bites in Indore Madhya Pradesh to manage the production of Yum-Pie.

Amit Kumat, MD & CEO of Prataap Snacks said “Our new brand ‘Rich Feast’ marks our entry into sweet snacks category where we see a lot of untapped growth opportunity. With this, we will now get into a bigger macro-snack category from only being a salty snacks player. We intend to grow the Rich Feast brand further with new launches in the coming time”.

Haldiram's has regained the top spot as the country’s largest snack company after more than two decades, surpassing PepsiCo in sales thanks to increasing consumer preference for packaged namkeen over western snacks such as potato chips.

Haldiram's posted sales of Rs 4,224.8 crore in the year ended September, compared with PepsiCo’s Rs 3,990.7 crore from brands such as Lay’s, Kurkure and Uncle Chipps, according to the latest Nielsen data sourced from executives. A year earlier, PepsiCo’s sales stood at Rs 3,617 crore compared with Haldiram’s Rs 3,262 crore.

While the overall market grew 17% in the year, Haldiram’s pace was faster at nearly 30%, in contrast with 10-12% during 2012-16. It added nearly Rs 1,000 crore of incremental sales in the year to September.

Kamal Agarwal a fourth generation member of the Haldiram’s family “There was a sharp increase in raw material prices for several snacking products, especially nuts. However, we maintained our price tag and absorbed losses, which helped us gain share not just from existing players but also the unorganised segment since the price differential narrowed down. Consumers are also correlating healthy food with Indian snacks and namkeen but chips are perceived to be unhealthy.”

PepsiCo spoke person said “In the salty snacks segment, we continue to be the leaders, which is also the fastest-growing category in overall snacks. In the western salty category, with strong double-digit growth, Lay’s has been our fastest growing food brand in the last year on account of premiumisation and innovation with Lay’s Maxx and Shapes. In the nachos category, we scaled our presence with the ‘Made in India’ Doritos, and the product is seeing strong preference and traction amongst consumers. We have further expanded our salty snacks portfolio last year with Kurkure Triangles, which is also growing in double digits.”

In the past few years, branded namkeen varieties such as dal, chivra, bhujia and nuts have been increasing their contribution within the overall snacks market worth Rs 21,600 crore. Traditional snacks now account for more than half the market with both multinationals and homegrown companies pushing namkeen into the hinterland with attractive packaging and pricing.

Marketers say consumers have increased purchases of branded namkeen rather than unbranded products from local bakeries due to the hygiene factor, helping regional players gain share from Pepsi. For instance, Gujarat-based Balaji that clocked sales of Rs 2,121 crore in the year to September is the second-largest in terms of individual brands after Haldiram followed by PepsiCo Lay’s and Kurkure.

B Krishna Rao, category head at Parle Products said “A large part of the unorganised market has shifted towards namkeen as companies have increased availability and affordability. Also, increased reach and new product launches especially by local players have been driving most of the growth.”

The US candy maker Hershey's Co said it would buy SkinnyPop popcorn maker Amplify Snack Brands in a deal valued at $1.6 billion, including debt, to gain a firmer footing in the fast-growing market for healthy snacks.

The maker of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Hershey's Kisses said it would pay $12 per Amplify share, a 71.4 percent premium to the stock's close on Friday. Amplify's shares were at $11.96 in premarket trading, while Hershey fell 1 percent to $113.

Big U.S. food companies are snapping up smaller brands as they try to maintain dominance with consumers increasingly moving to smaller, healthier or more artisanal brands. Over the past two years, Hershey has acquired brands such as Krave meat jerky and Ripple Brand Collective's barkTHINS.

Amplify Snack owns brands such as SkinnyPop popcorn and Paqui chips which claim to have no artificial ingredients or transfats and come in dairy-free cheese and naturally sweet flavours that are popular among millennial consumers.

Hershey's Chief Executive Michele Buck said “Hershey's snack mix and meat snacks products, combined with Amplify's Skinny Pop, Tyrrells, Oatmega, Paqui and other international brands, will allow us to capture more consumer snacking occasions by creating a broader portfolio of brands.”

Hershey's offer values Amplify's equity at $920.95 million and it will also take on the company's debt, which was $590.5 million as of Sept. 30. Hershey will also incur a make-whole payment of $76 million related to a tax receivable agreement that Amplify entered into when it went public in 2015.

Amplify's largest stockholder, TA Associates, and key company insiders who collectively represent about 57 percent of outstanding shares have agreed to back the deal.