Maggi noodles wins back market share on sustained recovery

Zurich/New Delhi: Global food and nutrition giant Nestle on Thursday said Maggi noodles in India has reported sustained recovery, regaining market share in the country almost a year after it was relaunched following a five-month ban in 2015.

"India grew strongly as the Maggi noodles business continued to gain back market share and comparatives turned favourable. The sustained recovery of Maggi noodles in India was also encouraging...Chocolates, driven by KitKat, also did well," Nestle said in a statement.

At present, Nestle enjoys 57 percent market share in the instant noodles market in India as against 75 per cent before the crisis had hit the company. The instant noodles market in the country is estimated at Rs 2,000 crore with ITC's Yippee, Nepal-based Chaudhary group's Wai Wai and Patanjali Noodles among major players besides Maggi.

In June 2015, FSSAI had banned Maggi noodles in India following a Bombay High Court order, saying it was "unsafe and hazardous" for consumption after finding lead content beyond the permissible limit.

After a 5-month ban, in November last year, Nestle India relaunched the instant noodles in the market.

Earlier this year, Nestle India launched up to 25 products across various categories in a day to fend off competition.

The company today reported a total sales of CHF (Swiss Franc) 65.5 billion for the nine month period ended September 2016. It also cut its outlook for 2016, saying it expects organic growth of around 3.5 per cent for the year, which was earlier pegged at 4.2 per cent.

"In an environment marked by deflation and low raw material prices, we continued to privilege volume growth, resulting in real internal growth at the higher end of the industry in both emerging and developed markets. Our growth was broad-based across categories, allowing us to gain or maintain market share in most of our businesses," Nestle CEO Paul Bulcke said.

"For the full year 2016, considering the current softer environment, we expect organic growth of around 3.5 per cent, improvements in margins and underlying earnings per share in constant currencies, and increased capital efficiency," he added.