Britannia aims to boost its sales in rural mkts: Varun

Britannia, which was an urban-centric company, now gets around 40 per cent of its sales from rural markets, its Vice-chairman and MD Varun Berry said, adding that rural is now growing ahead of urban markets, and this trend is expected to continue

BENGALURU: Britannia expects half of its domestic sales to come from rural markets in the next 3 to 4 years, as it is expanding its distribution network to increase its presence in those regions with aspirational buying preferences, said its Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Varun Berry.

The rural market is “very important” for Britannia, where the maker of Good Day, Marie Gold, and Tiger biscuits reported growth in double-digits in the latest April-June quarter, and is now amplifying reach through direct distribution to have a “continuous stream” of products being available in those far-flung markets, he added.

Britannia, which was an urban-centric company, now gets around 40 per cent of its sales from rural markets, Berry said, adding that rural is now growing ahead of urban markets, and this trend is expected to continue. “Our split between urban and rural was something like 75 per cent and 25 per cent.

Now, we have gotten to a 60-40 split. It is still in favour of urban, but slowly, steadily, we have grown the rural markets much faster than the urban markets, and this will continue,” Berry said.