Rivals Wai Wai, Patanjali up the ante as Maggi makes a comeback
After a harrowing 23 weeks of setback following the government ban, one of India’s familiar household noodle brand, Maggi, has finally made a comeback. While Nestle plans to leave no stone unturned to push its priced product back to the peak market share, rival brands, including Yippee!, Patanjali and Wai Wai, are leaving no stone unturned to nurture their newly-conquered consumer base.
Despite noticeable de-growth in the instant noodles category recently ITC’s Yippee! and Ramdev’s Patanjali noodles were the two brands, which capitalised on Maggi’s absence most during the last five months, retail experts said.
Patanjali noodles, launched in October, is seeing high growth. “We are producing 50 to 100 tonnes of noodles every day but still are unable to meet the demand,” said Acharya BalKrishna, MD, Patanjali Ayurveda. “Once we are able to fulfill the existing demand, we will come up with more varieties along with pan-India advertisement campaigns.”
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ITC, the maker of Yippee!, launched a reassurance campaign to bring consumers back to the noodles category, is planning another campaign. “We are now planning the second phase of the Yippee! campaign, which should further drive sales,” an ITC spokesperson said. ITC also plans to launch more variants, besides the current ‘masala’ category.
Nepal-based Chaudhary Group, maker of Wai-Wai noodles, is also eyeing a marketing push, mainly a national advertising campaign.
The companies refused to divulge the sales figures.
According to retail consultancy, Technopak, the instant noodles categoty is worth around `3,500 crore, and before the ban, Maggi had about 60% marketshare.
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