Prataap Snacks to expand presence, enter new markets & reiterate value proposition

Since 2003 Prataap Snacks offers the best quality snacks and relive the tastes and flavors of India. What started in the city of Indore has evolved into selling an average of 11 million packets daily in over 100 SKUs. In 2005, the company began manufacturing potato chips, and post that, it launched new flavors and products in the salty snacks category every year. The launch trajectory of Chulbule (2007), Rings, Namkeen and Wheels (2012), Scoops (2014), Kurves (2018) witnessed the eventual introduction of the sweet category with Yum cake, Cookie Cake, Choco Vanilla Cake (2019), and CupCake, Tiffin Cake and Sandwich Cake in 2020.

Speaking of the company, Amit Kumat, managing director and chief executive officer, Prataap Snacks, says, "At Pratap Snacks, we continue to launch and introduce two or three products every year and keep experimenting with the taste and flavors. Our product portfolio comprises chips, namkeens, extruded snacks (shaped and random), and pellets. We have already ventured into the sweet snacks category and are happy to see our consumers share their positive responses to those products."

The brand is keen on maintaining pan India presence and distribution across 27 states and 4 Union Territories. It enjoys the transformation of becoming a strong national player with strong brand equity. According to Kumat, Prataap Snacks' goal is to entrench and increase its 4,300 plus distributors that serve over 1.7 million retail outlets.

Manufacturing facilities equipped with advanced machinery

Pratap snacks operate over 100 SKUs that are manufactured in 13 manufacturing plants. Out of these, seven are owned by Pratap snacks (two in Indore and Guwahati, one in Rajkot, one in Kolkata, and one in Bengaluru). Other six are contract manufacturing facilities in Kolkata, Bengaluru, Tumkur, Kashipur, Hissar, and Karjat. According to Kumat, the manufacturing facilities are equipped with technologically advanced machines to produce hygienic and quality snacks that are uniform and consistent in taste and texture across batches.

He adds, "Our localization strategy continues to evolve with manufacturing plants being set up close to significant markets to enable faster replenishment of products at customer touchpoints. This strategy has also proven favorable as our distributed manufacturing infrastructure enabled us to resume our operations rapidly in the face of disruptions."

Prataap Snacks has significantly increased its manufacturing capacity over the past two years with a limited capital outlay. Kumat adds, "Our expansion plan has witnessed increased output through our contracted 3P manufacturing facilities that have become an asset and provide us with the option to conserve capital without constraining our capacity. The contract manufacturing facilities and the enhanced capacity of our Rajkot set-up of Avadh provide us with significant headroom to scale up our salty snacks business, even as we look to build the momentum in the sweet snack category."

Great taste, high-quality and affordable

Kumat recalls when the Indian snacking industry was a mix of western packaged products and loose Indian snacks. He shares, "We at Pratap snacks were clear that the change will happen when we marry the western packaging to Indian flavors and have dared to stick to one brand name across the country. Since regional players have had a strong influence in their respective markets, we changed the paradigm. We introduced exciting flavors that resonated with great taste, high quality, hygienically manufactured, and packed snacks that are affordably priced." Pratap Snacks' majority of snacks are targeted at children and youth, and over the years, the brand earned customer's trust in its products.

Speaking of the current times and the changing consumer trends, Kumat adds, "The snacking trends are going to evolve given the work from home culture and the understanding that packaged foods are much more hygienically packed and sold. Being packed safely and hygienically, sweet and salty snacking will only grow, and we are preparing for the same by expanding our distribution network across the country."

According to Kumat, Pratap snacks follow two fundamentals for success - right taste and quality that lead to excellent sales and distribution through a widespread network that caters to modern trade and local retailers. The brand has earned and now enjoys a very good distribution network.

Covid-19 and road to recovery

Kumat states that Covid 19 disrupted momentum and focus as the first lockdown badly impacted demand and witnessed a similar impact on operations and supply chain. However, he believes that FMCG and packaged snacks are likely to emerge as bright spots during India's economic recovery. He says, "Consumers have understood the value of safe and hygienically packaged snacks. Given the right price-value proposition, an accelerated shift can emerge in the consumption pattern from the unorganized to the organized sector offerings. We intend to capture this uptick and changed scenario by expanding our presence, entering new markets, and reiterating our value proposition."

He shares, "We are more focused on smaller cities and towns with alternate distribution channels and initiatives to help fasten our recovery. In the future, we plan to leverage our understanding of value-conscious Indian buyers. We will continue to offer them high-quality products at affordable price points with our pursuit of tweaking our products to local tastes and flavors. In addition, we are also recalibrating our offerings across larger and family-sized packs to capitalize on the shifting consumption trends in the post-COVID era."

Yellow Diamond & Avadh integration

Pratap snacks has enjoyed exemplary success in the last few years on the back of well-received products. Kumat explains, "This is seen in our numbers as we have witnessed 15% 7-Year CAGR growth. We are currently the market leader in the Rings Category with over 240 super stockists. The company's growth is seen in the overall net worth of over Rs 6 billion in the last fiscal year. We clocked Rs 11.8 billion in revenues in the same period with an operating EBITA of Rs 63.1 crore. Our topline growth has been driven by a renewed focus on customer connect through faster market replenishment, emphasis on popular flavors, more relevant marketing schemes, and continued expansion of the distribution network. Further, the Avadh integration has been progressing well."

Expansion of sweet & snacks portfolio

According to Kumat, Prataap Snacks is working on some new products in the existing sweet and salty snacks categories and will launch once the normalcy returns. Further Prataap Snacks' expansion plan includes - expanding the sweet and salty snacks portfolio; the roll-out of pellet snacks across the country to replicate this category's success in Gujarat and enter new markets by leveraging lower distribution costs. "We are steadily identifying and leveraging synergies between Yellow Diamond and Avadh brands in different markets and relentlessly expanding our sweet snacks portfolio," he concludes.