As noodles issue cools down, Wai Wai’s production, marketing plans sizzle up

The instant noodles segment is stirring back to life after facing food safety issues and a ban on some brands a few months ago.

To cash in on pent up demand, CG Corp, the makers of instant noodles brand Wai Wai, plans to set up three new plants, step up its pan-India distribution and focus on an aggressive marketing strategy.

The company is also looking to expand its presence in the snacks market and is eyeing acquisitions in the South and the West. With seven existing plants in the country, it has identified land for setting up three new ones in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat, at an investment of about ₹65-70 crore. These will commence production by next year.

Focus on South, West The company also plans to expand capacity at its Rudrapur plant, and has ramped up distribution at retail outlets, especially in the South and West.

Nirvana Chaudhary, Executive Director, CG Corp Global, said: “While we saw an impact in June and July, leading to a dip in production — not because of issues with our own products but because of overall consumer sentiments for the instant noodles segment — we saw a fast comeback from consumers and our production was back to full capacity by August-September.”

He said before the food safety fiasco, the instant noodles market was pegged at about ₹3,000 crore, of which Wai Wai enjoyed an 18 per cent share. “Now, the instant noodles market stands at about ₹1,000 crore and we have a 50 per cent market share. We believe the market will get back to ₹3,000 crore by next year,” he added. Nestle also recently restarted production of Maggi, which was at the centre of the controversy.

“We aim to grow our topline by over 30 per cent by next year,” said Chaudhary, adding that the company will be focusing more on its high-value brown noodles products. The company is seeing sale revenues of about ₹45 crore a month currently, according to sources.

Gap in market While the company’s white noodles product Wai Wai Xpress did face issues in Tamil Nadu, Chaudhary said it is a very small part of its overall portfolio. Asked whether the company will continue to see the growth once Maggi is back on the shelves, Chaudhary said: “We believe we got new consumers who hadn’t tried Wai Wai before, and got confidence from it during the tough times. This was not because of the gap in the market, but because consumers were looking to try new products.”