Anmol Industries: Journey of growth and innovation

Anmol Industries has made a significant impact in the food industry through its established brand presence, strategic supply chain, and well-positioned manufacturing facilities, since 1994. With a global footprint in 34 countries, Anmol’s diverse product portfolio boasts 41 varieties of biscuits and 6 varieties of cakes.

In an insightful conversation with India Business and Trade, Gobind Ram Choudhary, Whole Time Director of Anmol Industries Ltd, shares valuable insights into the company’s strategic expansion, its focus on quality and supply chain excellence, and recent ventures into new product categories like wafers. The conversation explores the challenges of the current market, the importance of evolving marketing strategies, and the future vision for Anmol Industries, highlighting plans to expand into new geographies and enhance product innovation.

IBT: Could you provide a brief overview of Anmol Industries’ journey since its inception and highlight key milestones that have shaped the company’s growth and operations?

Gobind Ram Choudhary: We began our journey in 1994, starting with a small factory in Dankuni, near Kolkata. Over the next 3-4 years, we expanded at that location, marking our first milestone. In 2000, we established a much larger factory in Greater Noida, a significant step up from the Dankuni facility. Around 2003 or 2004, we acquired another factory in Kolkata from a bank, continuing our focus on the biscuit industry. In 2008, we added a factory in Ghaziabad, followed by a new facility in Patna in 2011. By 2014 or 2015, we had inaugurated another factory in Bhubaneswar. Most recently, just two months ago, we launched a new factory in Thakurganj, near Siliguri, further expanding our manufacturing capabilities and capacity.

Our product line began with biscuits, and over time, we diversified into cakes, cookies, and rusk. Currently, we are focused on a variety of food products. Notably, two months ago, we entered the chocolate-coated wafer segment, which we believe is a highly promising sector that will add significant value to our portfolio.

In terms of geographical presence, we initially started in West Bengal and Bihar—before 2000, Bihar included Jharkhand. Today, we have a strong presence in Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha—four key markets for us. In the north, we are well-established in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Uttarakhand, and Punjab, as well as in central regions like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and parts of Rajasthan. Our presence extends to Jammu and Kashmir as well. However, our performance in the southern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana remains a challenge, despite being present there for over seven years. Our volumes in these regions are still relatively low.

IBT: What unique selling propositions and strategic initiatives have provided Anmol Industries with a competitive edge in the FMCG sector?

Gobind Ram Choudhary: When we started in 1994, the primary focus was on supply. If you had production, the products would sell, and the more you produced, the more you could sell. However, by 2000 to 2005, quality emerged as the key unique selling proposition (USP). Despite having a strong supply chain, we realized that without maintaining high quality, it would be impossible to sustain in the market. Quality then became our main USP, and it involves two critical factors: the ingredients we use and the control we exercise during processing. It’s not enough to simply use inferior materials and expect good quality. We must use high-quality materials and pay close attention to the processing.

From 2005 to around 2015 or 2017, quality remained our primary focus, although competition began to increase steadily. As a result, our USP of quality started to diminish over time, leading to slightly slower growth after 2015 compared to earlier years. In the past five to six years, while quality remains non-negotiable, two new factors have become essential USPs: supply chain efficiency and new product development (NPD).

We excel in supply chain management, but our new product development needs improvement. Although we do develop new products, we typically launch only one per year, whereas the market demands four to five successful products annually. It’s not enough to launch multiple products; they all need to be “hero” products that can significantly boost sales and add value to our distributors. Only then can we truly say that our NPD efforts are successful.

IBT: Anmol Industries has a diverse range of products. Can you elaborate on the specialized product categories within your portfolio and what makes them stand out in the market?

Gobind Ram Choudhary: Regarding our product categories, we have four main products, but biscuits account for 90 percent of our portfolio, so I’ll focus on them. In the biscuit industry, there are generally two types: soft dough and hard dough. These are technical terms—soft dough refers to sweet biscuits, while hard dough includes semi-sweet and salted biscuits. The overall market in India leans towards soft biscuits, such as Parle G and other sweet varieties like cream biscuits.

For us at Anmol, when we consider all geographies, our main product is hard dough, specifically semi-sweet biscuits under the brand name Dream Life. In addition to Dream Life, we offer another semi-sweet biscuit variety in a smaller size, which we call Two in One. In the soft dough category, we excel with butter-flavored biscuits and Yummy Cream. These 4-5 categories make up around 80 percent of our overall biscuit production.

IBT: How do you perceive the current growth trends in the FMCG industry, particularly in the segments Anmol Industries operates in? Which key markets do you see as having the most future potential?

Gobind Ram Choudhary: The current market growth presents significant challenges on two fronts: from competitors and the market itself. A few years ago, the industry enjoyed double-digit growth, but now it has slowed to single-digit growth, ranging from 6 to 9 percent. The COVID-19 period was actually very favorable for us, but in the 2-3 years since, we’ve encountered increasingly tough conditions. Macroeconomic and microeconomic factors play a role, with many consumers relying more on bank loans or cutting their expenditures. The government has also been providing support through food aid, which has affected consumer spending patterns.

Post-COVID, we are particularly struggling with demand-side challenges, even though competition is likely to increase in the coming years. The primary issue is demand, which has been weak, and this has impacted our growth negatively.

To address the stagnant growth in biscuits, we launched wafers just three months ago, a move driven by the slow or non-existent growth in our core biscuit segment. Given that the biscuit segment is underperforming, we’ve had to diversify into new categories like wafers.

When it comes to identifying key markets for future potential, we’re not currently planning to launch products in new geographies where we aren’t already present, such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, or Kerala. Instead, our focus is on strengthening our existing markets by introducing new products, entering new segments, or offering value-added products for our channel partners and consumers.

Additionally, our marketing efforts were historically weak because we primarily saw ourselves as a manufacturing company. However, over the past two to three years, we’ve recognized the importance of marketing and have increased our budget significantly. I believe this will contribute to better growth in the coming years.

IBT: Can you share some insights into Anmol Industries’ approach to product innovation and any future strategies or upcoming products that you are particularly excited about?

Gobind Ram Choudhary: We have 6 or 7 products in the pipeline, each featuring different flavors in the biscuit category alone. In addition to biscuits, we’re also working on new products in the cake and wafer categories. In total, we’re conducting R&D on four to five segments of biscuits, as well as one segment in cakes and another in wafers.

IBT: What are some of the significant challenges Anmol Industries has encountered in its business and trade operations? Additionally, what are your expectations from government policies to support the FMCG sector?

Gobind Ram Choudhary: Currently, the GST on biscuits is set at 18 percent, but I believe it should be reduced to 5 percent or, at most, 12 percent. Biscuits are a staple product, widely consumed by common people, especially in rural areas. As I mentioned, our growth has been stunted due to weak rural demand. Considering the total industry size of biscuits in India, which is around 60,000 crore, it’s important to note that over 40,000 crore is consumed by rural, low-income groups. This makes it clear that maintaining the 18 percent GST on such a basic product is unjustified.

IBT: Looking ahead, what is your vision for the future of Anmol Industries, and what strategic goals do you aim to achieve in the next five to ten years?

Gobind Ram Choudhary: We’ve established a clear vision for Anmol, which is why we decided to open a new factory in Thakurganj, even though it wasn’t necessary given the current market conditions. Our vision is ambitious, and we’re confident we’ll grow from our current sales of 1,600 crores to a much larger size in the next five years by expanding into new geographies like Maharashtra, Gujarat, and several southern states.

In addition, we plan to significantly increase our marketing budget, which is currently around 1 to 1.5 percent of revenue. We aim to raise this to 3 to 4 percent.

Our vision also includes a strong focus on new product development. We’re optimistic about the coming years because we’ve expanded our NPD department and will continue to increase its capacity. This will allow us to introduce more product categories under the Anmol brand and develop a wider variety of biscuits, particularly targeting semi-urban and urban areas where we see potential for growth.

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Gobind Ram Choudhary, commerce graduated from University of Calcutta, Kolkata in 1987  from St. Xaviers College. He is associated with Anmol Industries for more than 2 decades, with his novel and futuristic approach, Mr Choudhary has remarkably changed the dynamics of the company. He is leading a team of more than 2000 employees in Anmol Industries Ltd. Before this he was the managing director at Bhagwati Cold Storage for 11 years and therefore gathered perfect understanding of Rural Market. He has a habit of grasping more and more knowledge from different sources. He has done 8 months course from Business Coaching India(BCI) on Business Mastery Program(BMP). From this course, he has upgraded him on supply chain, operational efficiency, leadership and motivational skills. He is very fond of reading management books. Currently he is responsible for the overall working of the Company for North India and is instrumental in making strategic decisions for the Company. Under the leadership of Mr Gobind Ram Choudhary’s, Business Achievement have earned recognition at the national level. Anmol Industries was honoured with number of awards. Received Best Productivity Award from National Productivity Council. Then Business Sphere Award in 2006-2007. Think India Award 2014, For Emerging FMCG Company Transforming India Conclave. Awarded with Man of Excellence Award 2014 in 36th National Seminar Delhi. In 2015, honoured ET Bengal Corporate Award for Fast Growing Company.