Manish Aggarwal, Director, Bikano, Bikanervala Foods Pvt. Ltd., elaborates more on the impact of Covid on the business and its recovery strategies

With a rise in demand for ready-to-eat (RTE) food, market players like Bikano have also ventured into the RTE segment. At the same time, with increased consumer focus on healthier snacking options, Bikano is reworking its portfolio to offer healthy snacking options such as diet mixture, among several others. Notably, BIkano’s festive season gift hampers were among the popular ones. A ?1000 Cr sweet and savoury brand, Bikano has footprints across the globe with presence in over 35 countries. With the modernized manufacturing process, the brand has altered its marketing strategies with changing consumer sentiments in the ongoing pandemic phase. To elaborate more on the impact of Covid on the business and recovery strategies, Manish Aggarwal, Director, Bikano, Bikanervala Foods Pvt. Ltd. interacted with exchange4media. Edited Excerpts:- Although Covid-19 has severely impacted the larger economy, a packaged snack company such as ours has remained relatively unscathed. In fact, in the early days of the Covid-induced lockdown when people were frantically making panic purchases wanting to stock up on food supplies, our sales had shot up considerably. Therefore, though we always have contingency plans in place, we never really had to devise a recovery strategy as such. Our business volumes have remained consistent and even looked better. What are the key driving factors for the FMCG industry in the prevailing scenario? Reworking supply chains, tying up with online formats as well as supermarket retail channels, and most importantly, the relaxation in lockdowns and in general allowing normal movement of people and goods would be key drivers for the FMCG sector as a whole. In the middle of the year, consumer business intelligence companies had predicted flat growth for the FMCG sector as a whole How has e-commerce reshaped during the past few months? Tell us more about Bikano’s online and offline channels? No doubt, e-commerce has been given an unprecedented impetus by the pandemic during the last few months. As physical movements were curtailed and rigorous social distancing norms were enforced, it was but natural that e-commerce in nearly all consumer segments would have been incentivized to ‘spread its wings’. Remember, online stores had remained the lifeline for people’s essential and even non-essential supplies during these tough months to the extent that online shopping has formed almost a permanent habit of sorts for a lot of people. As for Bikano, yes, it too has found itself expanding its presence through online stores on the back of a robust offline presence right through the country and beyond. Our wide network of distribution outlets spanning GT, major modern trade outlets, CPC and CSD stores and even railway stations and trains remained largely functional due to a strong and reliable supply chain system that we have always had in place. The demand for Ready to Eat and snacks has incessantly increased during the past months. What is your outlook on the growth of these categories? How will marketing interventions by Bikano cater to the ever-increasing demand? Yes, prompted by fast-paced lifestyles when time is at a premium, people are increasingly opting for ready-to-eat food and snacks. In recent months, it has been reported that people are even more stretched for a time while working from home. As a result, these categories have obviously exhibited more demand as well as acceptance owing to the sheer convenience factor. I expect that this is going to continue even when the pandemic is behind us. Marketing is essentially about communicating the right product messaging to the right target market and in that regard, we have used several mediums including digital to take our products to the food lovers. What is your outlook on the packaged food industry in India? What major trends have shaped up in recent times? We are optimistic that the packaged food industry in the country is poised for higher growth in terms of business as well as greater acceptance by people. With technology throwing up new and more eco-friendly forms of packaging and the general rise of the packaging sector combined with all-round logistical improvements would certainly give a new momentum to the packaged food industry. The authorities increasingly laying down more rigorous processes, rules and standards for food is another notable dimension. In recent times, impelled by widespread consciousness and awareness of the need for hygiene and health – only catalyzed by Covid-19 – along with the traction for online channels for sale and distribution has redefined the industry. With internet access becoming more and more common across the country, even tier II and III cities are opting for neatly packaged food as opposed to open unhealthy food. How did the festive season perform for Bikano? How do you keep Bikano different from other competitive brands in the cluttered market? The festive season turned out quite favourable for the company. Like every other year, along with our regular offerings, Bikano’s celebrated and signature gift packs were lapped up by our customers like hot cakes and we had to stretch ourselves to meet the demand. To keep Bikano different from others, I think the idea is very simple. Always keep customers at the core of everything that we do. No matter what the pressure, never compromise on quality while aiming to give value for money to our patrons. At the same time, we continued to innovate and came up with new products keeping in mind the need and preference of the new-age consumers. What are the future growth plans of Bikano? Any new product portfolios in the line-up? As for our future plans, while looking to fortify our presence in existing markets such as Delhi, UP, Haryana and Punjab, we are going more aggressive in the southern part of the country. As such, Hyderabad is going to be our launching pad for our further and deeper inroads into the south. Even as we plan on introducing several new products into the market and R&D is already underway in that regard, our recent product launch for multigrain chips has been a step to offer healthy snacking options to our customers. At the same time, we also intend to go big on tier 2 and 3 cities as well as rural areas. The aim is to be present in every neighbourhood store in the country. Now with Covid showing signs of relenting, we also have plans to expand our reach in export markets building on the current presence in 45 countries. With that in mind, even as we are set to completely digitize our supply chain systems, we are constantly reworking the logistics, the supply chain and distribution networks with a vision to deliver the best possible service experience to our patrons. Regarding new product portfolios, yes we are going to come up with more products in the ready-to-eat and packaged sweets segments.