“We have a very unique buy proposition, which explains the kind of share we hold in the Indian noodle space,” says Manvendra Shukla, global chief executive officer of CG Foods, the brand behind the popular Wai Wai noodles. “We’re a ready-to-eat noodle, which means you can directly eat it from the pack like a snack, something that hasn’t been replicated yet,” he adds.
While Nestle’s Maggi and ITC’s Sunfeast Yippee hold much of the noodles market share, pegged at over 80%, Wai Wai is the third-biggest player, controlling as much as 10% of the space. An offering of the Nepal-based Chaudhary Group, the company now has IPO ambitions, looking to list Chaudhary Group’s India food unit by 2026, as per reports. In an interview with Shubhangi Shah, Shukla speaks about the growth the brand is looking at, chief growth drivers in the noodle space, and how flavour is the way forward. Edited excerpts:
Being among the top noodle brands in the country, what growth are you looking at this financial year?
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We are in line with the industry growth. In fact, the industry is more driven by price growth versus volume. On the contrary, we’ve seen a good volume growth as well, which is good for us. We’re eyeing a double-digit growth, at 15% y-o-y, for this year.
Any special plans for the rural markets, especially since two of your competitors—Nestle and ITC—have launched lower-valued packs?
Wai Wai already enjoys a strong presence in the rural segment. We’re a very sizeable player in the northeast, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand, and also doing fairly well in the Uttar Pradesh hinterland areas.
A large part of our portfolio is also driven by the `5 segment wherein we have a much bigger share compared to the competitors. Also, the rural growth is reviving. Although it isn’t what we would expect, it is almost at 18% versus urban growth, which is lower.
Brands are experimenting with flavours. Any plans of launching new flavours?
I think, for the noodle segment, flavour is going to be a strong driver for growth. Yes, there will be some base flavours like masala in India. But it’s the unorthodox and more local flavours that are going to play a very significant role. For example, recently, we’ve seen the emergence of Korean noodles. Cheese-flavoured noodles are very popular in several parts of the world. So now if you look, the noodle shelves are more vibrant and colourful with more varieties. All leading brands, including us, have come up with new flavours. We also launched Dynamite, and are really hoping a lot from this brand. Also, the new generation doesn’t carry the burden of the past. It’s more experiential, wants to try new things.
What are your thoughts on the demand for healthier noodles?
The way we look at it, this is responsible selling, and a very good direction for the industry. All responsible organisations are looking at it very seriously. We, too, are in the R&D stage for millet noodles.
However, from the consumers’ point-of-view, it’s always taste first. It all depends on how good people are in replicating things into healthier formulas, which is going to be challenging to the R&D departments of companies.
Any plans of launching new categories in India?
Yes, we’re selling other products in other parts of the world and would be interested in launching them in India too. However, we first want to consolidate our distribution in noodles, and expand in the rest of India.
We have plans of bringing new categories to India, which are the contemporary categories such as seasonings, spreads, sauces, which we have test marketed in the past and would want to scale it up in the future.
From: financialexpress
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