SWOT analysis of Britannia

Britannia is one of the most known Biscuit, bakery and dairy food FMCG companies in India. The vast variety of products with known brand names like Good day, Marie, Cheese, butter etc make up the core product portfolio of Britannia. Naturally, the distribution of Britannia is far and wide. In the SWOT analysis of Britannia, the product line and distribution is the strongest point for the brand. The same is discussed at length below.

Strengths in the SWOT analysis of Britannia

1. Brand portfolio: Britannia is the only company in India that has offerings in bakery products across the segment for all income groups due to which it’s possible for them to acquire large share of wallet of consumers. Britannia holds nearly 30% market share in the India’s biscuit category.
2. High Brand Recall: Because of its presence across range of bakery products like biscuits, rusk, cakes & dairy products like milk, butter & cheese etc., their shelf visibility is high. Also their focused marketing & advertising campaigns resulted into positive word of mouth & high TOMA (top of mind awareness).
3. Serving Indian Markets from last 120 years: 123 years ago, in a small house in central Calcutta (now Kolkata) an intrepid baker made a batch of delicious, golden brown biscuits. These were meant for officers of the British Raj and their families, people used to the high standards of English tea-time snacking. Over the last century and a quarter, Britannia has been serving the Indian consumer with a range of fresh, nutritious and flavor-rich products. Today, Britannia is a leading food company in India with over Rs. 6000 crores in revenues, delivering products in over 5 categories through 3.5 million retail outlets to more than half the Indian population.
4. In depth product portfolio: It has different offering for different income groups with large assortments across the product categories like in Biscuits they have tiger ,milk bikis , Good day, Bourbon ,little hearts, crackers , nutria-choice.
5. Market Penetration and distribution: Being present in the market with such large SKU’s and making it available through its robust distribution system, Britannia has penetrated to every nook & corner of the country.
6. Market Leader in bakery: Britannia Industries Limited (BIL) is a major player in the Indian Foods market with leadership position in Bakery category and has a market share of ~ 30% in the industry. Britannia offers both delightfully indulgent and healthy choices in biscuits, bread, cake, rusk and a range of dairy products that include cheese, curd and specially formulated functional beverages with a dairy base.

Weaknesses in the SWOT analysis of Britannia

1. Over dependency on the biscuit business: Britannia’s 75% revenue comes from biscuit business. Although they are market leader in the same but over dependency on the same may affect their long term existence in the business.
2. Various brands got commoditized over time: Brands like Bourbon & glucose biscuits of Britannia got commoditized over time such as in case of “bourbon”, Parle also introduced “Parle bourbon” biscuits. Brand name when used like this by other companies, creates confusion in the mind of the consumers resulting in loss of sale.
3. No overseas presence: Apart from India Britannia have presence in Dubai & Oman that too through subsidiaries. But overall export of the products is very less then its actual potential.
4. Struggling dairy business: Dairy business contributes only 5% of the company’s overall revenues.

Opportunities in the SWOT analysis of Britannia

1. Emerging Dairy Industry: With organoleptic (flavor, taste & color) features shaping the dairy industry, improving dairy products can help the company to improve their market share & reposition itself in dairy market.
2. Changing lifestyle & demand for healthier food products: Improvement in literacy rate, health awareness, changing lifestyle,& increase in disposable income are shaping the demand for healthy food products.
3. Overseas Market: Expanding its business to other overseas market can help the company to emerge as a global player in the food products.

Threats in the SWOT analysis of Britannia

1. Competition in the market: With increasing number of players (local players – Anmol, Priya & national- ITC, Parle), it’s becoming very hard for the company to differentiate themselves from others. There is also threat from counterfeit products destroying its brand image in the market.
2. Price of raw material: Increasing price of commodities will result in further increase in the price of the end product. Further increase in price will result in decrease in profitability or reduced consumption.
3. Buyers power: With highly diversified consumer goods market where there are lots of brands claiming different sorts of benefits, it’s very difficult for consumers to stick to a particular brand & hence results into brand switching where consumer get power to select a brand based on several factors  like availability, reference group recommendation, preference & price.