Diet watch pushes demand for pricer snacks

Chennai: Seated at home during the lockdown and having a sedentary lifestyle for almost two months, customers appear to be snacking healthy.

Consumption of healthy variants of premium brands in the biscuits, snacks seems to be on the rise with brands including Unibic seeing customers go for their healthy variants.

Most brands are recording a growth of 50% in a month in the category, products priced at 30%-80% premium over the mass segment. Srini Vudayagiri, CEO, Unibic says that their oatmeal and nutritive variants are flying off shelves. “From the initial panic buying now with constant supply in place; their focus is on eating healthy. They don't mind paying a 20%-30% premium,” he said. Customers are either building their immunity with healthy eating or reducing their calorie intake while having a sedentary lifestyle during the lockdown. Vudayagiri adds that early trends in May shows that the month is poised to record the highest ever sale for their healthy biscuits category.

Mayank Shah, category head at Parle, adds that their digestive categories are seeing a 50% growth in consumption, predominantly in metros, mini metros and tier 1 cities.

“Consumption of snacks is also reducing and these biscuits — which are priced at Rs 200 a kg as against the mass category which is priced at Rs 120 a category — are seeing increase in consumption from the weight conscious,” he added. The trend is also reflected in the sale in stores. Data from retail tech company Snapbizz that has captured data from over 8,000 stores shows that the price has been indexing higher than quantities.

Considering baked goods, biscuits, snacks and cooking oil, there is a 30% drop in quantity — indicating no more panic buying and hoarding. On the other hand, the price movement has not changed.

“This means that customers have been buying more expensive alternatives but in limited quantities. Categories include yoghurt and real fruit juices,” said Prem Kumar, founder, Snapbizz K Rathnam, CEO, Milky Mist observed a 300% jump in demand for yoghurt in the last month. Even as the category is considered premium, consumers are lapping up the product because it’s fruit based and has live bacteria. “We have this product for 2 years now, but have not seen this demand,” he adds.


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