Storyboard: In conversation with Parle’s KrishnaRao Buddha

Consumer goods companies are gearing up for the festive season by launching new products in anticipation of the surge in demand during the festivities. Storyboard caught up with Krishnarao Buddha, Senior Category Head, Parle Products and spoke to him about their new launches, expectations from festive season, organised versus unorganised namkeen segment in India and much more.

There are more and more consumers outsourcing snacks and they are also going for packaged snacks, he said.

He sees a shift towards branded snacks on the back of greater awareness about the ingredients being used in packaged snacks.

“Unorganized segment is pretty large. However, the propensity to buy, the purchase power – we are seeing there is continuous increase and that is leading to greater shift towards branded snacks like ours,” he explained.

“Year after year, during festive times we are seeing an increased consumption and increased demand for such traditional namkeens,” he mentioned.

“Total salty snacks in the country is valued at about Rs 38,000 crore, which is massive and is one of the largest categories – growing at about 12 percent,” he said.