Bagrrys, the breakfast cereals and health foods company, has emerged as the pioneer in India for products such as granola, muesli and oats among others. Over the years, the Delhi-based company has been coming up with a line-up of nutritious products.
Now, striving to take the three-decade-old company to the next level is
Aditya Bagri, Director Bagrrys Group.An LSE alumnus, Bagri worked at Goldman Sachs in the UK and AIESEC in Delhi before joining his family venture in 2011 as a Manager. He gradually rose to his current role and is now handling the entire FMCG business for the group.
Bagri spoke to e4m at length about the companys goal, the growth journey, advertising strategies and much more.
Take us through Bagrrys initial journey. Who was the driving force behind the company?
My father started this business just out of passion when he was only 19. He subsequently built it into a successful B2B company, supplying tailor-made ingredients to multinational companies.
Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, who strongly spoke about the nutritional value of bran the outer coating of wheat that was usually thrown away, my father processed bran and converted it for human consumption.He supplied bran-rich products to consumers. The feedback was that the products had health benefits and that encouraged and motivated him further. Thats how he started making oats, muesli and other nutritious products.
We innovated with various other nutritious products for Indian consumers. Bagrrys was the first to launch a nutritional bar in the country in 1998 and that was way ahead of its time. 2000 onwards, we focussed on FMCG business as well with teams for various functions. We also established state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities (in Delhi, Himachal, Rajasthan and UP).
By giving what we felt would be the best for consumers, we have built decades of trust in the brand.
Over the years how have you connected with your consumers - word of mouth, supply chain innovations or ads?
In the initial phase, it was predominantly word of mouth that helped us grow. Consumers tried our products and shared feedback with others. We also used influencers of the nineties who were then doctors, nutritionists and food editors. We shared technical papers with them showcasing the health benefits of our products. We participated in a lot of events in Delhi and Mumbai, and other places to market our products.
Predominantly, we focussed on delivering good quality products and growing organically by word of mouth.
We were the first to introduce PET jars to pack our health food products two decades ago. Globally, these products were sold in plastic or paper pouches then. This initiative became quite popular and encouraged homemakers to have oats as it came along with PET jars.
What has been your most popular advertising campaign in recent years? Which ad agency do you work with?
A majority of our campaigns were launched by our in-house advertisingteam. We advertised on Meru and Ola cabs and in airlines. Now, we are focussing on micro-campaigns on digital platforms such as Google and Facebook, and e-commerce platforms. Their flash rates are very high as we have to launch campaigns every 10-15 days.
As far as mass media is concerned, we did a TV campaign in Malayalam and that was quite successful.
We dont want to launch many products and wait for consumers' approval. Our focus rather is on products that consumers like. We are focussing on customer acquisition that can be sustained.
How much is your ad expenditure today compared to what it was before the pandemic?
Without going into actual numbers, I would say that the AdEx has gone up five to six-fold compared to what we spent in the pre-pandemic times. Earlier, we mostly participated in trade events for marketing, now digital campaigning is the focus. Going forward, our campaigns will increase since we are going to launch new products.
Who do you see as your biggest competitor? Do you feel you are making a dent in their revenues?
Bagrrys is not the organization that says this is our competitor or we are making a dent in others revenue. Our long-term goal is to become Indias most trusted brand in the health food category.
The breakfast cereals market is heavily dominated by multinationals. To operate in this segment, we have to ensure that we keep innovating and offer the best quality products.
Our corn flakes brand is very different from others because we have added fibres in the flakes to reduce the glycemic index of corn without compromising on taste. We are using whey protein, which is a quality protein in breakfast cereals.
We launched various categories, including one for kids, without any artificial ingredients. When we realized people want healthy products beyond breakfast, we launched an extension of the morning breakfast category by adding healthy snacking items.
We are the largest home-grown brand in the category. There is still a long way to go.
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We have built decades of trust in the brand: Aditya Bagri, Director - Bagrry's - Exchange4Media