Description
Welcome to a deep dive into the enchanting narrative of Parle-G, the quintessential biscuit that has woven itself into the fabric of Indian culture. From its inception in the 1930s to its status as a global phenomenon today, Parle-G’s story is as rich and diverse as the nation it hails from.
Success Story
Friends, do you know that people of Hindu religion used to shy away from eating biscuits. But why? We will know this further. But after the arrival of Parle ji, it changed the mentality of the people and now it rules the hearts of all of us. So friends, how did a poor tailor create this biscuit brand that supports us at every step, from morning tea to office gossips? In today’s video we are going to know everything in detail.
And yes, we will also know how Parle distributed its secret formula to everyone and how this brand did not increase the rate of its biscuit packet by even ₹ 1 for almost 25 years. Parle ji, there would hardly be any Indian who has not eaten these biscuits dipped in tea. And yes, the amazing thing is that our parents and grandparents also have as much love for these biscuits as you do. This is the reason why it has been called not a biscuit but an emotion and the foundation of this emotion was laid during the British Raj.
When eating biscuits was nothing more than a golden dream for us Indians but how?
To understand this we have to go to the late century. Actually, at that time, in a few big shops in the market, this special kind of square looking tin box filled with biscuits was available, on which Huntley Palmer was written in big text. This box was bought from the shop and delivered directly to the British palace, which the big British officers used to enjoy while sipping tea in the morning and evening and the Indians used to look at it from a distance and think that after all this Which new invention is this?
Soon these biscuits reached the homes of our King, Maharaja and some rich Indians, but their price was so high that the middle class or poor people were hesitant to even think of buying it. Now this biscuit had become a tea companion for the rich but many upper class Hindus who could afford it still avoided bringing it to their homes or eating it. Because bakers used to use eggs to make these biscuits.
But later the solution to this problem came from Lala Radha Mohan, who started a company named Hindu Biscuits in Delhi during 1998, whose objective was to make biscuits popular among Hindus. For this work, the company hired only Brahmins and upper caste Hindus so that their biscuits could be acceptable even in the eyes of cost conscious Hindus. In the very first year, the company gave an advertisement for its biscuits, in which it was told that the entire work from manufacturing to packaging of the biscuits is done only by the hands of upper class Hindus.
Also, these biscuits are prepared only with milk and not a single drop of water is added. But with the increasing popularity of Hindu biscuits, many more people also started selling biscuits with this name. Due to which the original Hindu Biscuits suffered a lot and it merged with the Britannia Company. However, friends, even after so many copies coming in the market, the price of biscuits never decreased so much that they could reach the hands of the poor.
Then came the day of 7 August 1905 when the foundation of the Swadeshi movement was laid under the leadership of Gandhiji and people started boycotting foreign goods and adopting things made in their own country. Also, to support this movement, many Indian people also started local businesses. So that dependency on foreign products can be reduced. And friends, meanwhile a tailor from Gujarat. Mohanlal Dayal ji was also so impressed by this movement that he also expressed his desire to join the Swadeshi movement.
For which he thought why not open his own toffee and chocolate company in the country. Because through this they could not only cause financial loss to the British but also the taste of these toffees could reach those poor children. Those who could only get tempted after seeing it in the hands of rich children. But the biggest question here was. After all, how to make these toffees because at that time there was no such resource available in India from where it could be made. Can learn how to make it.
That is why Mohan Lal Dayal took a big decision and went to Germany in 1929 to learn this work. There he learned toffee making techniques for some time and when he came back to India, he took a toffee making machine with him. Also brought. After coming back, Mohanlal Dayal bought an old closed factory in Vile Parle area of Mumbai and fitted his machine here. In the beginning, only 12 people worked in the company, who were Mohanlal’s family members and according to their capability, one of them took the post of manager, someone of toffee maker and someone started looking after the packaging and supplies.
Now in the beginning no one paid attention to the fact that the company should have a name and hence after a long time the company was named Parle after its location i.e. Vile Parle. The first product of this company was an orange candy which was quite popular at that time. But friends, due to lack of affordable biscuits in the market, Mohanlal Dayal thought of filling this gap and in the year 1939, Parle launched its biscuits in the market for the first time, which was named Parle Gluco.
Due to its cheap price and good quality, this biscuit soon became very popular among the people and even during the Second World War, both the Indian and British armies consumed this biscuit a lot. When India became independent in 1947, there was a sudden shortage of wheat. Due to which Parle had to stop the production of its Gluco biscuits. Because its main ingredient was wheat.
But later, to overcome this crisis, Parle started making biscuits made from barley and in an advertisement, paying tribute to the freedom fighters, appealed to its consumers to buy biscuits made from barley until the supply of wheat becomes normal. Use. Well, later the situation became normal and Parle again started using wheat instead of barley. Now everything continued well for the next few years, but around 1960, many other companies started launching their biscuits under the name of Gluco Biscuit.
Now due to this, confusion started increasing among the consumers as to which is the original Gluco Biscuit and this was the reason why Parle’s sales were continuously falling at this time. But seeing its falling sales, the company took a very strategic move and started working on improving its branding. For this, first of all he decided to create new packaging. After which Parle biscuits started coming wrapped in a yellow wax paper. It had red Parle branding along with a picture of a little girl and this girl’s station was designed by Maganlal Daiya of advertising agency Everest Brand Solutions.
This new branding attracted a lot of children and their parents. Apart from this, Parle has also been successful in leaving its own mark among other brands. After this, in the year 1982, the company repackaged Parle Gluco as Parle G, in which G meant Gluco and in the same year itself i.e. 1982, the first TV commercial of Parle G came in which a grandfather sings with his grandchildren. Looks like it happened.
After this, in 1998, Parle ji got brand endorsement in the form of Shaktiman and if you are a kid of the nineties, then there is no need to tell how popular Shaktiman was among the children. In such a situation, Parle ji became very popular among children because of their favorite superhero Shaktimaan. Since then, taglines like Jee Mane Genius, Hindustan Ki Shakti, Roko Mat Roko Mat have always kept Parle Ji in the news. Now friends, today Parle has a huge portfolio which includes many types of biscuits, candies and namkeens and many people think that Bisleri, Baby, Frooti and Apple Fish also come under Parle.
But is it really so? Now to understand this, first we have to see Mohanlal ji’s family once. Actually Mohanlal ji had five sons, out of which the eldest son Jayantilal Chauhan decided to leave the family business and started Parle Agro. And today, even though popular products like Frooti and Fridge come under this company, but during the 20’s, Jayanti Lal Chauhan had split his business between his two sons Prakash Chauhan and Ramesh Chauhan. After which Parle Agro came into the hands of Prakash Chauhan and Bisleri brand comes under Ramesh Chauhan.
In this way, after separation from Jayantilal Chauhan’s family, Mohanlal’s four sons Maniklal, Pitambar, Narottam and Kantilal Chauhan became the owners of Parle Products. Now friends, in the beginning, Parle was because of its cheap and good quality. Was completely dominating the biscuit market. But the surprising thing is that even in the current scenario, Parle has more than forty percent market share in India, which is the highest among any biscuit brand. In such a situation, it is quite interesting to know what tactics Parle adopted to dominate the market even after 100 years.
So friends, actually the company has a hero product in the form of Parle G but despite the huge success in it, it never sat idle. The company had started understanding the likes and dislikes of people by researching the market long ago. When he launched his Parle Gluco biscuits, he realized that it is not necessary that everyone likes sweet biscuits with sweet tea. Rather, many people prefer salty food to tea. That is why Parle also launched Monaco biscuits in 1938.
To attract children and youngsters, the company also launched Parle G in 1956, which was a very unique product and its small square shaped namkeens became very popular at that time. After this, in 1963, Parle brought its own toffee. In which case, many of you must have eaten it. In 1966, Parle launched Pops, whose colorful candies were a hit among children. Apart from this, Parle has launched Melody, Track Jack, Twenty Twenty, Magic, Milk Shakti, Mango Bite.Like London Dairy and Hide and Seek, it launched many products in the market which were well received and with their help, Parle was able to capture the biscuit market of India.
Till the year 2012, Parle used to sell its products through 40 lakh shops and in 2013, the turnover of Parle had become more than five thousand crore rupees. And friends, in the lockdown that happened at the time of Corona, Parle ji got a lot of benefits and the turnover of the company increased and crossed Rs 8,000 crore. Today Parle G is the world’s largest selling biscuit brand which produces 1 billion biscuit packets every month and an average of 4,551 Parle G packets are consumed every second. So friends, at one time the demand for Parleji biscuits had increased so much that the company was not able to make that many biscuits.
In such a situation, Parle took a very smart decision and joined hands with a local bakery. After this the company gave the secret formula of its biscuits to those bakeries. Due to which, the load on the company regarding baking of biscuits was reduced and also a strong supply chain was automatically created because the shop from which Parle biscuits were finished. New packets were immediately delivered there from their nearest bakery.
Now this strategy worked very well for some time, but later when massive orders started coming in, the company started focusing more on increasing production. now friends For higher production, they needed more raw materials, which were available at huge discounts when purchased in bulk. And friends, Parle ji also got similar benefits and after bulk production, their profit increased a lot. Now there were a large number of people in the market who were crazy about Parle G and even shopkeepers used to get worried about placing orders before the stock got exhausted.
Given the rapid increase in demand for these biscuits, if any other company had replaced them, the first thing they would have done was to increase the price of their product. But Parle ji did not do this. Even in its initial days 85 years ago, it was the cheapest biscuit and even today it remains the cheapest. And the amazing thing is that where has inflation reached in the last 25 years. For example, in 1998-99 the price of petrol used to be at ₹ 25 per litre, which has now become around ₹ 105.
But in these 25 years, Parle ji had not increased the price of its biscuits even by ₹ 1. In such a situation, you might be feeling that like today’s startups, Parle too might be burning its money. But this is also not true because in the financial year 2022, Parle ji had generated a profit of ₹ 200 56 crores. So actually friends, the prices of Parle G biscuits are increasing but so silently that consumers do not even realize it.
Actually the company understands very well that consumers love to pay extra money. No, because once when he had increased his biscuits by only ₹ 0.50, then his sales started dropping and people started protesting on the streets. In such a situation, the management team of Parle G decided that they will not increase the price of biscuits but will reduce its quantity. That is why earlier, where a 100 gram packet of Parleji was available for ₹ 4, today only 55 grams is available for ₹ 5.
Now if we look at it, Parle G is a hero product of the company which is easily available in even the smallest shops in every corner of the country. Due to this strong distribution of Parle G, whenever the company launches a new product, it reaches the market very quickly. In this way, without much effort, its new products also start getting exposure and through them the company earns a lot. But friends, is Parle ji dominant only in India? So the answer is absolutely no because there are many countries like USA, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand where Parle G is liked very much. Moreover, its manufacturing units are also available in many countries.
Also, like us Indians, the Chinese are also crazy about this biscuit. That is why Parle G has become the most sold biscuit in China also. So friends, please tell us by commenting what kind of memories you have with Parle ji.
Anyway, see you again with the powerful explanation of the Success Story.
