Nestle is ready to take on Patanjali with 25 new products

Now that the Maggi storm is over, Nestle India has decided to battle its new competitors like Patanjali hands on, by launching up to 25 products across various categories.

It is also claiming that it has won back 55.5% share in the instant noodles market as against the 77% share that it had before last year’s ban; even though it could take a few more quarters to overcome the Rs 500-crore hit that it suffered because of the ban.

"We have weathered the storm, although we still have two cases pending in the court. Now it is the time to ride the wave," Nestle India chairman and managing director Suresh Narayanan told PTI.

As part of its strategy, Nestle India is rejuvenating the existing brands, while also adding new products and entering into new categories, so that it can target a wide range of consumer segment, ranging from babies to youth to women and adults.

Mr Narayanan further elaborated on the company's new launches, saying, "There are about 20-25 product launches, some of them have happened, some are happening and some will happen in four to six weeks time. This is probably the single largest window of new product launches in a long time."

These new products include seven more variants of Maggi, a Greek yogurt brand called Grekyo and a protein growth brand called Pro-Gro in the dairy segment; other than this, multiple products in chocolate and confectionery segments would also be launched.

"We are trying to look at product concepts that are differentiators. The launches are multi-targeted in terms of consumer base that we are looking at," he said.

Moreover, the time for launching new products has been shortened from 12-15 months to 4-6 months, so that it can keep up with the changing market dynamics.

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