ITC Ltd, a prominent player in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector, anticipates achieving a double-digit market share in the smoothies and milkshake beverage segments during the fiscal year 2024.
The company provides a range of smoothies under the brand Sunfeast, incorporating milk and real fruits in flavors such as mango, strawberry, litchi, and peach-pineapple. Additionally, they offer a delectable dark fantasy chocolate shake.
“We were only selling these smoothies on airlines and airports and earned a good market share in the last two years. Therefore, we expanded that beyond the airports and airlines to modern trade. In modern trade, last year, we were just behind Amul at number 2. In the dairy beverage space this year, we are now going to expand it to general trade, and we anticipate that we should be able to reach nearly double-digit market share in general trade, in the geographies we will operate in,” said Sanjay Singal, Chief Operating Officer for the Dairy & Beverages cluster of ITC’s Foods.
Under the Aashirvaad Milk brand, the company employs digital technology to assess the quality of milk during the procurement process. The live tracking of milk ensures a consistent 4-degree temperature is maintained throughout the supply chain, from the village to the factory.
“We wanted to go the value way. ITC has invested in a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Punjab, where we have put up an aseptic PET line which allows you to offer a dairy beverage with six to nine-months shelf life without adding any preservatives and also presents us a unique opportunity that no one in the country today has, which is to add fruit pieces, badam pieces etc into the product,” he said.
The Kolkata-based FMCG manufacturer is strategically planning to diversify into sub-segments of fruit-based beverages, with a specific focus on expanding its presence in the domain of natural fruit drinks.
“We are seeing that consumers across food and beverages are going for more evolved needs. We are betting big on coconut water because coconut water is a completely natural product. It’s a natural electrolyte. It doesn’t have any added sugar and it’s a very light product which can be consumed any time of the day. We have launched it under the brand B Natural, a very tasty coconut water which gives you a very tasty authentic taste. Secondly, it’s very difficult to pick up a raw coconut and take it home, so our coconut water is available in convenient package format in 200 ml and 750 ml. We launched this only a year back and we are happy with the progress,” added Sanjay Singal.
