The Indian
food industry is in a nascent stage of growth. Processed foods account
for less than 1 per cent of India’s total food consumption. Hence, it
is an industry with high growth opportunity.
The penetration
of malted food in India is a low 6.1 per cent. Over the last few years,
there have been a number of attempts to expand the health-beverages
business. In view of the tremendous growth potential, many multi-national
corporations (MNCs) as well as domestic players have made aggressive
investments in this sector, but there are very few players left in this
sector in India, today.
Pricewaterhouse
Coopers (PwC) of Mumbai recently undertook a study to analyse the challenges
before the industry and map a concerted programme change to boost its
performance. The study also included an extensive survey of consumers
to study their behaviour in the context of health beverage parameters.
Data related to the industry, sales, profitability, growth and consumption
patterns was collected.
The survey
also sought to provide a comprehensive database on the key categories
and major players, in terms of their size, growth and retail structure,
an analysis of the trends in the industry and the bottlenecks, and an
assessment of the overall potential of the industry. However, no projections
were made as to the actual growth, market shares of key players and
their likely sizes. The following is a summary of the findings:
The
market
The Indian
health beverages market is divided into white and brown health drinks.
White beverages constitute about 65 per cent of the market.
The
players
The major
players in the health beverages market are SmithKline Beecham, Cadbury,
Nestle and Heinz. The market is dominated by SmithKline Beecham with
about 70 per cent share. Cadbury and Heinz have about 12 per cent each,
and Nestle only 3 per cent.
The
products
The products
include Horlicks, Boost, Viva and Maltova from SmithKline Beecham, Bournvita
from Cadbury, Milo from Nestle and Complan from Heinz.
