Guess which biscuits were the favourite of the nation during the lockdown? None other than your childhood obsession, Parle-G. The biscuit brand achieved a unique feat of selling the maximum number of biscuits during this period.
A household brand since 1938, Parle G revealed that March, April, and May have been their best months in over eight decades, said a report in Economic Times (ET). It, however, didn’t share specific sales numbers.
“We’ve grown our overall market share by nearly 5%…and 80-90% of this growth has come from the Parle-G sales. This is unprecedented,” Mayank Shah, the category head of Parle Products, was quoted as saying in ET. “During the lockdown, Parle-G became the comfort food for many; and for several others, it was the only food they had on them. This is a common man’s biscuit; people who cannot afford bread — buy Parle-G,” he further said.
Parle-G, a popular choice since 1938, has been everyone’s go-to biscuit brand. During the lockdown too, while some stocked the biscuits in their homes, the 5-rupees-a-pack cookie came handy for many migrants who trekked several kilometers to get back home.
Anuj Sethi, senior director of Crisil Ratings, said that consumers were taking whatever was available, be it premium or economy priced. “Some players may have focused more on premium value SKUs as well. Players had been focussing on enhancing distribution reach, especially in rural areas in the past 18-24 months; this worked well for them during the pandemic,” the report quoted him as saying.
