Retail Case Studies
Study I
rivate LabelsWill The Fizz Last (March17, 2010)
In October last year, retail chain Big Bazaar approached Haryana - based KCL Foods and asked it to make breakfast cereals for Big Bazaar's private-label Tasty Treat. It was the second attempt in months by Big Bazaar to enter breakfast tables with its own brand. The category has been growing at 20-25 per cent annually for the last two years and a deal with KCL would give it better margins, and more bargaining power with national brands.
Murginns, KCL's breakfast cereal, had been on Big Bazaar's shelves and gaining consumer acceptance. So KCL agreed and introduced three variants for Tasty Treat. In the first month, the three gave Big Bazaar sales of Rs 50 lakh. The next month, Big Bazaar pulled Kellogg's cereals from its 148 stores over a margin dispute, even though the multinational accounted for around 75 per cent of its breakfast cereals sales. Total sales fell, but Big Bazaar still sold around Rs 1 crore worth of breakfast cereals that month. "The sales dip was not as big as expected. The litmus test is now when the market leader is coming back," says Sanjeev Khemka, President, KCL Foods. (Big Bazaar has signalled a truce with Kellogg's.)
Private label portfolio of major retailers
FUTURE GROUP
Fresh n Pure, Cleanmate and Caremate (FMCG), Tasty Treat and Premium Harvest (food & grocery), Koryo and Sensai (consumer electronics), John Miller and Bare (apparels)
SPENCER'S
Smart Choice (food & grocery and FMCG), Great (consumer electronics), Island Monks and Mark Nicolas (apparels)
RELIANCE RETAIL
Sudz, Endurf, Calcident and Dazzle (FMCG), Reliance Value, Healthy Life, Good Life and Dairy Life (food & grocery), Network, DNMX and First Class (apparels)
MORE
Feaster and Kitchen's Promise (food & grocery), 110 Per Cent and Fresh-O-Dent (FMCG)
KCL Foods is just one of the many companies that flourished in the downturn by feeding the appetite of retail chains for cheaper products and bigger margins — and are now poised for a national presence. Take Asian Lakto Industries, which supplies packaged juices and soft drinks to retail chains under their private labels, or JHS Svendgaard Laboratories, which began as a contract manufacturer of oral care products in 1996 for the exports but is big in dometic private labels.
According to consultants Technopak Advisors, the private label market is worth around Rs 4,500 crore (including apparel, food and grocery, home electronics, and footwear). Private labels, also referred to as inhouse or store brands, are not new to India. But the downturn created both a new "push" (retailers searching for higher margins) and new "pull" (customers seeking cheaper options). Now, even as the economy looks up, these private labels are not slowing down. Santosh Desai, MD & CEO, Future Brands, agrees that the downturn created a fresh demand from consumers.
"Consumers looking for alternative to conventional brands are increasingly switching to low-priced high-quality private labels," he says. Industry watchers say private labels are no longer considered lowquality versions of national brands, and, in several cases, these brands are becoming the first choice of many consumers. Neeraj Poddar, Director, Asian Lakto Industries, says his company has contract manufacturing tieups with Reliance Retail, Bharti Wal-Mart, Future Group, Vishal Retail, and Aditya Birla Retail's More. On an average, private-label beverages are sold at prices 10-15 per cent below that of national brands but give the retailers higher margins.
Neeraj Poddar ,Director, Asian Lakto Industries
Private label manufacturer for Reliance Retail, Future Group, More, Bharti Wal-Mart and Vishal Retail
Turnover: Rs 45 crore
Contribution of private label to total turnover: 30 per cent
Contribution of private label to total turnover by 2012: 40 per cent
Asian Lakto also owns two brands sold through traditional shops. "At present, 30 per cent of our total turnover (Rs 45 crore) is private labeling, while our own brands make up the rest... By 2012, private labeling will account for 40 per cent of the total projected turnover," says Poddar. KCL Foods, a part of the paper packaging firm KCL Ltd, entered the market in August 2007, before the downturn, with its cornflakes. The challenge then was to build the right product at the right price. Then came the downturn, followed by the deal with Big Bazaar. At present, Murginns is selling through 14 retail chains and traditional kirana stores and contributes 75 per cent of KCL's turnover of Rs 2 crore a month. The rest comes from contract manufacturing for Big Bazaar.
"When Big Bazaar came to us, we were running at around 18 per cent of our total capacity (600 tonnes a month). The deal gave us a stable source of revenue," Khemka says. For KCL Foods, margins on both Murginns and Tasty Treat are similar (eight per cent). Big Bazaar, though, gets 4-5 per cent more from every packet of Tasty Treat cornflakes sold compared with what it gets from Kellogg's. Dynamic pricing also attracts customers to the private labels. For example, Kellogg's cornflakes sells at Rs 130 for a 475-gm pack. Tasty Treat is priced at Rs 125 for the same weight, but is given at a discount and sometimes with a freebie. "In the next 30 months, we are expecting to touch an annual turnover of Rs 100 crore, with Rs 15 crore coming from private label business," says Khemka.
Rahul Mehta
Managing Director, Creative Garments
Private label manufacturer for Shopper's Stop, Future Group, Lifestyle and Vishal Retail
Turnover: Rs 350 crore
Contribution of private label to total turnover: 10 per cent
Contribution of private label to total turnover by 2013: 20 per cent
Vineet Kapila, President, Spencer's Retail, says the private labels' share of the overall consumers' bills has gone up significantly in the last one year. In 2008, private labels accounted for 25 per cent of the average bill. "In the last one year, it has more than doubled to around 50 per cent. We are seeing good repeats in our nectar juice drinks category, where the market share of our private label brand is 30 per cent," Kapila says.
Private labels offer margins of 20-25 per cent against 12-15 per cent on the normal brands. Margins in apparel and accessories business can go up to 40 per cent.
Says Anand Ramanathan, Manager, KPMG Advisory Service: "The obvious reason for the success of private labels is their price advantage which is made possible by the minimal spending on their brand promotion." Such spending is incurred only when the private label gives discounts or bundles two-three products.
The push factor is also evident from the fact that almost all the retailers—big or small—are expanding their private label portfolio. While the Future Group, of which Big Bazaar is a part, is planning to launch its own toothpaste brand "Sach", Spencer's has lined up launches in FMCG, apparel and electronics. Kapila says Spencer's has launched over 60 products across different categories over the last one year, "way above the number we have ever launched in a single year".
"Due to higher margins, we have given slightly higher than the fair shelf space to our in-house brands," Kapila says. Today, private labels fetch 18 per cent of Spencer's total turnover; by the next 18 months, the share is expected to touch 30 per cent. A notable success in retail has been Trent Ltd, the Tata retailer, which relied heavily on private brands at its Westside stores right from the start. As Trent's Managing Director, Noel Tata, told BT in an interview recently, "You have a lower turnover with a higher margin in private label. And margins are what pay the bills."
Sanjeev Khemka
President, KCL Foods, Private label manufacturer for Future Group
Turnover: Rs 24 crore
Contribution of private label to total turnover: 25 per cent
Contribution of private label to total turnover by 2012: 15 per cent
Asian Lakto's Poddar has added Reliance Retail and Bharti Wal-Mart over the past 12 months, and even its existing clients are expanding their product portfolio by adding flavours. According to a 2009 KPMG report, Indian Retail: Time to Change Lanes, private labels account for 10-12 per cent of the organised retail product mix in India, against 17-18 per cent globally. Saloni Nangia, Vice President (Retail & Consumer Products), Technopak Advisors, says: "In the last one year, the private labels' growth (30-35 per cent a year) has outpaced the growth of the organised retail market (25 per cent)…growth will continue to remain the same."
Delhi-based JHS Svendgaard has seen it all: for the first three years of its existence, it supplied exporters. Then, it tapped export markets directly, signing deals with US retail majors and FMCG companies. In 2002, it bagged an order from Subhiksha Retail to make toothbrushes and pastes for it. Today, it has a good 40:60 mix of exports and domestic sales, in rupee terms, and makes private label items for Spencer's, Bharti Wal-Mart, and REI Agro as well as FMCG companies such as Dabur, Oral-B and Sahara India.
Nikhil Nanda, Managing Director of JHS Svendgaard, says his private label business had been almost nine per cent of total turnover but fell to five per cent this year after Subhiksha, the south-based chain, collapsed. Nanda expects domestic retail to account for nearly 20 per cent of sales by 2015. "The overall market for in-house oral care brands is likely to grow 40-50 per cent over the next five years," says Nanda. In oral care, national brands offer margins of 25 per cent, and private labels an average of 60 per cent. "So stores will always try to create more excitement around their own labels," Nanda says.
Nikhil Nanda
Managing Director, JHS Svendgaard Laboratories
Private label manufacturer for Spencer's, Bharti Wal-Mart and REI Agro
Turnover: Rs 30 crore
Contribution of private label to total turnover: 5 per cent
Contribution of private label to total turnover by 2015: 20 per cent
Creative Garments, a Mumbaibased apparel maker, is another player aggressively expanding in private labeling. After almost two years of cajoling by Future Group and Shopper's Stop, Creative's Managing Director Rahul Mehta decided to move into the apparels business in 2003. Starting with 100-odd pieces, it now churns out 5,000 pieces a day for private labels. Creative still exports 80 per cent of its output, while the rest is split equally between private labels and own brands. This year, when exports fell, it was saved by the private label business. "Total turnover is likely to remain at last year's level...Thanks to the private label business, we have been able to break the fall in turnover," says Mehta. In the next three years, private label division will account for 20 per cent of revenues, he says.
National brands are not running scared. LG Electronics, for one, is confident that price alone will not win the battle. L.K. Gupta, Chief Marketing Officer, LG Electronics India, says: "The emergence of private label in a growing economy like India is inevitable…Through our research, we have found out that 15-30 per cent of the consumer durable purchases are made primarily on the basis of prices."For these consumers, buying a product with basic features is good enough, says Gupta.
"The only way national brands can maintain their market share is to keep spending money on product innovation and brand building," he says. He also cites after-sales service and warranty schemes as his big advantages. "I doubt private labels have the capability to offer something like this," Gupta says. For private labels this is not a priority. Their focus: get a national presence without any brand building.
Study II
Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar boycott Kellogg’s over margin row
| DELHI: After boycotting Cadbury in 2008 over margin differences, Kishore Biyani is at it again: this time it’s Kellogg’s at the receiving
end. The country’s largest retailer has decided to boycott the breakfast cereal brand across various retail formats after the US firm turned down its demand for higher business margins.
Future Group will sell the existing inventory of Kellogg’s in its stores such as Food Bazaar and Big Bazaar, but will not take new stocks from next week, a company official familiar with the development said. When contacted, Kishore Biyani, CEO of Future Group, said, “We believe in collaborative relationships to build demand and consumption. Both sides have to understand each other’s needs and work together to drive growth.”
Kellogg India MD Anupam Dutta was unavailable for comment.
The conflict has been brewing for some months now and discussions between the two have hit rocky terrain in recent weeks.
The retailer was demanding 15-16% margin from Kellogg’s, up from around 12% now, said a Future Group official requesting anonymity.
With the cereal maker refusing to bulge, Future Group is now looking at pushing its own labels Tasty Treat range of cereals in place of Kellogg’s, he said.
A person close to negotiations between the two parties, however, said the talks were still on and that Future Group was yet to throw out the brand that commands more than 70% share in the country’s breakfast cereal market estimated at close to Rs 400 crore. Future Group will boycott Kellogg’s only if the talks fail, he said.
Defending the demand for higher margins, he said the cost of holding Kellogg’s stocks was high because of its large-sized packages take up significant shelf space in stores. Also, only a few of the breakfast cereal maker’s several variants do well, he added.
This is the latest development in a series of conflicts between modern retailers and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies. While retailers are demanding higher margins, consumer product firms accuse the retail industry of pushing its own labels at the expense of established brands.
In retaliation, manufacturers are working closely with the traditional trade that is contributing higher growth in recent months, according to industry estimates. “Companies are passing on a lot of margins to the traditional formats through discounts and promotions, which may have upset modern retailers,” said an analyst tracking the retail sector in a leading foreign brokerage house.
Like other FMCG companies witnessing healthy growth in smaller towns and cities, Kellogg too is bullish on tier-two and tier-three towns and cities
riding on localised variants and low-priced packs, especially the Rs 10-packs that account for more than 10% of its overall volumes.
The cereal maker is planning to scale up its distribution footprint to reach about 2,000 towns and cities in the next couple of years, up from around 1,400 now. The company recently rolled out a new breakfast cereal for kids, Honey Loops, nationally.
The Indian subsidiary of the $13-billion, Michigan, US-based Kellogg Company, is among the fastest growing units for the company worldwide, although on a smaller base.
Future Group had last year boycotted Cadbury India on the premise that the chocolates maker did not cut uniform deals with all modern retailers and gave better deals to international retailers who may have larger stakes in global markets. The issue was sorted out later.
The country’s largest retailer is yet again showing off its growing clout. Now it’s playing a cereal killer.
Study III
India's organised retail story has just begun
The end came after months of a tense stand off. Hectic talks and parleys between the two parties, sometimes muted and sometimes threatening led to a
nought. Finally, the Kellogg’s brand was pulled off the shelves from 148 Big Bazaar stores.
“We pleaded with them to listen to us and understand the issues. At the end, it was a futile exercise and some what humiliating to go to them again and again,” a senior official from the Future group says, commenting on the imbroglio. When Big Bazaar banned Kellogg’s, it replaced the counters with its private label Tasty Treat corn flakes on the shelf.
The claim by Big Bazaar officials so far on the off take of the private labels performance vis-a-vis Kellogg’s is encouraging. If Big Bazaar with its strikingly similar colours and packaging to Kellogg’s packs is able to entrench itself in the breakfast cereals category, it will open a new chapter and another front between the fledgling own labels programme of retailers and national brands in India.
The Kellogg’s-Big Bazaar fracas indicates that the working relationship between retailers and brands will remain a stormy affair. Both parties will test each other to assess the strain one can take in this battle for shelf space. Even as officials at Future group claim that Kellogg’s refused to acknowledge the reason behind the increase in margins which the retailer was asking for, Kellogg’s response is it didn’t make business sense.
“We can’t accede if they ask for the moon,” the Kellogg’s executive states. He adds that even Carrefour, Wal-Mart in developed markets never remove market leaders from the shelves and terms it as an “unnecessary show of strength”. Industry observers call this tussle as a natural progression as both parties are trying to settle into a marriage. “Even today modern trade constitutes around 4-5% of the total trade serviced by national brands. So brands were not looking at it seriously, where as retailers after tasting blood with private labels feel emboldened,” says Asitava Sen, director, business consulting, The Nielsen Company.
Thomas Varghese, CEO, Aditya Birla retail says private labels currently accounts for approximately 19% of his company sales across categories with around 13 power brands and store brands covering almost 300 SKUs at More stores. “Large international brands across countries have also had competition from private labels and now the time has come for them to face similar competition here as well,” he says.
SHELF HELP
The private label programmes definitely got a fillip courtesy the slowdown. While consumers held back on high ticket purchases, there was a downgrading by consumers which the retailers seized as an opportunity with the store labels. Devendra Chawla, business head - private brands, Pantaloon retail says the growth from zero to Rs 180 crore turnover for own labels is a result of same value at less mark up. Citing the example of foods and beverages, where the company has presence from — from noodles to colas — Chawla says it’s an engine for growth in the time to come.
Damodar Mall, customer director, Future group seconds the thought. “Most of the purchases are non branded and therefore it’s a open level playing field right now. Category will expand, consumers will change, who will win? The jury is still out,” says Mall.
At the same time, national brands have been working with the unorganised trade under taking retail initiatives like the Supervalue Stores from Hindustan Unilever (HUL didn’t respond to our queries) and Purple Kings initiated by Cadbury with varying degree of success. Sen however reckons the partnering with conventional trade has its own pangs.
“After all, its franchisee management and brands are going through a learning curve here as well. But identifying the high net worth stores and nurturing them makes a lot of sense and is lot easier compared to developing relationships with modern trade.”
So the road ahead means some smart manoeuvring both by retailers and brands. Aditya Agarwal, director, Emami admits that getting shelf space is a challenge as retailers increase their focus on private labels. “Brand building will play a major role. We plan to increase our investment on brand building, come up with more SKUs and merchandising for modern retail to fight this game of private labels,” says Agarwal, adding that there will always be a set of consumers who are price conscious and not brand conscious.
Brands believe that retailers shouldn’t discount the pull factor of national brands. “Private labels has to be there for modern trade to survive. At the same time, retailers need national brands to grow categories for their own labels to ride,” states Sunil Sethi, ED, sales and customer development, Cadbury. Despite the differing points of view, retailers know they need the national brands and manufacturers realise the importance of a new channel like modern trade.
This applies for OTC brands as well. Case in point: GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSK) joined hands with Shoprite from South Africa which runs a cash-n-carry format. The company worked closely with Shoprite to help grow two categories – Antacids and Pain Balms which do not get purchased from the modern trade, explains Navneet Saluja, EVP - sales, GSK. “We worked closely with Shoprite and drafted a channel strategy for modern trade, where cross-category and checkout placements were identified as an opportunity to create a shopping occasion through impulse buying.” As a result of this exercise, the antacid category has grown 6 times in Shoprite and pain balm category has doubled, states Saluja.
Another trend likely to gain root according to industry experts is brands sticking to its core proposition and resisting the temptation to become a retailer themselves. Citing the example in fashion retail, Govind Shrikhande, CEO, Shoppers’ Stop says that apparel brands opened their own stores in the hope of increasing off take. “So inside a mall, they are present in MBOs (multi brand outlets) and also stand alone. So they are killing business opportunities for everybody as there isn’t enough throughput. “Instead why don’t you pay me 30-35 % margin, I give you the shopping experience, get the throughput and achieve the sales target,” he states.
Indeed the jury is still out on how exactly will the changes shape up the modern trade landscape in the future. For along with the changes on the shelves, there has been a course correction on retail network as well as back end. The organised retailing story is by no mean over, infact, it’s just begun.
Case Study –IV : Big Bazaar: Private label push
Big Bazaar, the hypermarket of Pantaloon Retail, has come out with a breakfast cereal range under its private label, Tasty Treat. Big Bazaar already sells noodles, pasta, vermicelli, soups, namkeens, chips, toast, khari, papads, jams, pickles, carbonated drinks, ketchup and fruit beverages under the brand. It has now added breakfast cereals to the range.
The breakfast cereals will be available in three variants — plain cornflakes, chocolate-flavoured Choco Gols and honey-flavoured Honey Circles. There are two reasons for launching the product, says Pantaloon Retail’s head of private brands, Devendra Chawla. “One is that private brands give us far higher margins, and the second is that cornflakes as a category is under-penetrated and has a lot of scope to grow.”
The market for breakfast cereals is still small. While the packaged food market is valued at Rs 33,234 crore, the organised breakfast cereal market is just Rs 250 crore — less than one per cent. But the market is growing fast, given the growing health consciousness in the country, especially the urban middle class. Kelloggs monopolises the market for breakfast cereals with its range of flakes. Some other multinational players have also shown keen interest in this market. PepsiCo has already entered with its bestseller brand, Quaker Oates. Heinz India, which has a hugely strong bond with households because of its Complan health drinks, too has joined the bandwagon.
In spite of the presence of a large number of players in the branded packaged food segment, Tasty Treat is growing at about 70 per cent. This perhaps has given Big Bazaar the confidence to try its luck in breakfast cereals as well.
In a recent development, Pantaloon Retail, promoted by Kishore Biyani, has boycotted Kelloggs at all its retail formats for turning down its demand for higher margins. Not surprisingly, Big Bazaar is pushing its own brand of cornflakes now. This is not the first time Big Bazaar is doing this. A while back Cadburys and PepsiCo owned snack food brand Frito Lay had to bear the brunt.
As an introductory offer, the cornflakes brand will be priced at Rs 99 along with a free bowl worth Rs 60.
According to Chawla, the brand will provide 10 to 15 per cent value when compared to rivals. “We have the option of pricing it lower as we don’t have to pay intermediaries and can pass on that advantage to consumers,” says Chawla.
Case -5
Instant noodles: Rivals turn the heat on Nestle's Maggi
In the 1980s, marketers in India kept trying to push exotic food options down the throats of a mostly unwilling, unadventurous Indian consumer. The
kilometre long queues that greeted the launch of Parle’s Big Byte soon dwindled to nothing and Voltas’s Cookie Feast arrived with a bang and left without a trace of ever having existed.
Which makes Maggi noodles all the more of an oddity. It’s the last man standing, a survivor, a brand that created and dominated a category throughout its existence. Along the way, it lost a few of its launch flavours like Capsica, and even made a few disastrous missteps like the ‘sweet’ noodles and the change of flavour in the flagship for a brief period in the mid-90s. But in the near two decades of its existence, Maggi has been the only show in town when it comes to noodles. Even today, it leads the pack with a 90% plus share. The brand has been successfully extended into sauces, soups and pasta.
The big difference between now and even half a decade ago is there is finally a well defined pack for Maggi to lead. Many other marketers want their forks in the noodle bowl including those that fight Maggi’s parent company Nestle tooth and nail across several other categories. There are finally signs of a battle raging in the Rs 1,000 crore instant noodle market with aggressive competitors like HUL and GSK.
HUL has entered the fray with Knorr Soupy Noodles, GSK launched Foodles and though ITC denies any interest in the space, the market is rife with rumours of the Sunfeast brand being extended into the noodle category. Other brands that may not have the huge money power of the multinational giants but which are piggybacking on the opportunity afforded by modern trade are Ching’s Secret and Smith & Jones from Capital Foods and the Future Group’s private label brand Tasty Treat. Also present in certain pockets for nearly a decade are the likes of Wai Wai and Top Ramen.
The instant noodles category is growing at +20% CAGR. The large size of the category and its growth rate presents an attractive opportunity for brands. Shubhajit Sen, VP - marketing, GSK says, “Category penetration of 40%+ indicates noodles widespread acceptance as a regular grocery item for many Indians. Noodles per se have become accepted by Indians — it can be seen in its various avatars as street food and food you serve to guests, give your children to take to school etc.” What makes Foodles unusual is that it is being offered under the Horlicks brand.
Explaining the decision, Sen says, “Horlicks was always sweet, even the biscuits and cereal bar. We wanted to extend the brand into a savoury or salty kind of product and Foodles was an opportunity to do that.” Foodles was first launched in the South and Sen says it has achieved 5% of market share within three months. According to GSK, it has managed to garner 3% within the first month in the east. Knorr’s Soupy Noodles presents a chance to accomplish several targets with just one product.
Known only for soups, which constitute a minuscule category in India, HUL is betting on the soupy noodles to expand the footprint of the Knorr
brand to areas beyond urban markets. “Noodles in India is about 12 times bigger than soups and everyone who consumes soup also knows about noodles. A typical Indian family has 25-30 packs of noodles in a year, whereas soups are not too popular. It is mostly consumed by the higher SECs,” says Sidharth Singh, VP, packaged foods, HUL.
Ching’s Secret has a long, hoary history trying to take on the might of Maggi nearly a decade and a half ago with a more traditional Chinese noodle offering. While this found no takers, it is still part of the arsenal at Capital Foods. The marketer is fielding both Ching’s Secret as well as Smith & Jones, with the former aimed at a more youthful demographic. Ajay Gupta, CEO, Capital Foods suggests there’s enough room for everybody: “Maggi has not just established the category, but grown the market as well. There are a lot of consumers entering the category, which is seeing a 20-25% growth year on year.” While the main plank in urban areas is still convenience, people across small towns are hooked because of the sheer variety available.
However even before HUL and GSK, the relatively obscure Wai Wai has been very popular across the North East and the East. Wai Wai is built around the USP of being a genuinely instant noodle that can be eaten directly from the pack unlike Maggi which requires at least two minutes worth of cooking.
G P Sah, VP and CEO of Choudhary Group which manufactures Wai Wai says, “No other brand has such an option.” Sah even claims leadership in the North East, with Mi Mi a smaller variant of Wai Wai at the second position, and Maggi a distant third. Not to be left behind are retailers like Food Bazaar that launched noodles under the Tasty Treat brand. According to Devendra Chawla, head, private brands, Future Group, “In our country where taste and food preference changes every 200 km, instant noodles has crossed this journey most effectively breaking the barrier.”
Through its long history, Maggi has burnt through a wide range of positioning lines and statements. When Maggi entered the country, Nestle used TV heavily to familiarise consumers with the brand. Its initial campaign ‘Fast to Cook, Good to Eat’ became a catchphrase and ‘2 Minutes’ gesture of the Maggi mom was widely imitated. The 25th anniversary campaign around the theme ‘Mein aur Meri Maggi’ acknowledged a generation that has grown up on the brand and which is now poised to include it in the diet of its children.
For its Soupy Noodles, HUL is occupying a plank that’s not dissimilar to what Maggi started with: a mini meal when children return from school and before they leave for play or tuitions. But HUL hopes to build traction for the soup habit via the already fairly well established noodle habit.
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