Parle-G Biscuits Record Highest Ever Sales in Lockdown, Randeep Hooda Demands Switch from Plastic Packaging

Parle-G, one of the oldest biscuit brands in India, has sold the maximum number of biscuits during the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

According to a report by the Economic Times, the makers of Parle-G brand affirmed that March, April and May have been their best months ever since they started business.

“We have grown our overall market share by nearly 5%... And 80-90% of this growth has come from the Parle-G sales. This is unprecedented,” Mayank Shah, category head at Parle Products, was quoted as saying in Economic Times.

However, Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda shared a tweet after this news, asking the company to switch its plastic packaging to a biodegradable material.

"My whole career is feuled by chai and Parle-G since theater days.. Can you imagine how much less single use plastic waste there will be if just Parle-G changed its packing to an alternate biodegradable material? Now the sales are up let’s see the contribution to a better Tom (tomorrow) too," the actor tweeted.

Organised biscuit-makers such as Parle-G got their operations running within a very short period after the nationwide lockdown was clamped on March 24. According to the report by ET, biscuits across price points have seen a massive surge in sales volumes over the past three months.

“During the lockdown, Parle-G became the comfort food for many; and for several others it was the only food they had on them. This is a common man’s biscuit; people who cannot afford bread – buy Parle-G,” Shah said.

“We had several state governments requisitioning us for biscuits… They were in constant touch with us, asking about our stock positions. Several NGOs bought humongous quantities from us. We were lucky to have restarted production from March 25 onwards,” added Shah.

Parle Products makes their biscuits in 130 factories across the country – 120 of them are contract manufacturing units, while 10 are owned premises.

Brand Parle-G falls in the ‘below-Rs100 per kg’ affordable/value category – which accounts for one-third of overall industry revenues and accounts for over 50 per cent of sales volume. The overall Indian biscuit sector is pegged at Rs 36,000 - Rs37,000 crore in fiscal 2020.