Every India has tasted the Parle g biscuits and fallen in love with the taste immediately. We have enjoyed having with tea, coffee, milk or even water. Parle G biscuits, in which g initially stood for Glucose but latter changed to genius. Over the time Parle g is one of the most popular biscuits of India and as its staple biscuits of India, especially with tea. A rare fact which might be not been known to all is that Parle G was the first biscuit to be made in India and made for common man.
The company was founded by Mohan Lal Dayal in 1929 and was highly inspired by the Swadeshi movement. The first step taken in this direction was that the company started producing candies for the Indian consumers who can not only buy it but also enjoy it with their families as well as friends.
The name Parle comes from the area, where the factory is started. Chauhan even travelled to Germany to learnt the craft of ‘confectionery-making’. He returned in 1929, post mastering skills and high-tech machinery. He purchased an old factory set up in between Irla and Parla in Mumbai. The company was started with only 12 employees, and all these 12 employees and all of them were family members only. They played different roles such as engineers, managers, and confectionery makers.
After a decade the company shifted their focus towards biscuit making operation commenced in 1939. During the said time biscuit was only consumed by the elite class, as it was, they were mostly imported and expensive. Keeping the company values in mind, they introduced ‘Parle Gluco’ which was an affordable biscuit meant for the consumption of common people. Over the years the company has gone various changed its packaging to differentiate itself from its competitors. The current packaging is a white and yellow striped plastic packet with the red Parle logo, and the photo of the famous Parle girl on it.
The world is on a standstill, due to the global coronavirus Pandemic. India is no different as the nation is on complete lockdown for more than two months and nobody is left their homes. During these tough times, Parle-G biscuits has achieved rare feet of becoming the largest number of biscuit packets sold during the pandemic. The news was confirmed by the company who confirmed that March, April, and May the company experience the best months in past 80 years. Mayank Shah, category head at Parle Products was quoted saying “We’ve grown our overall market share by nearly 5%… And 80– 90% of this growth has come from the Parle-G sales. This is unprecedented.”
During these tough times, the sale of economically priced biscuit has been on the rise as the citizens have picked easy and simple essential food items. Mayank also opened about Parle G strategy and said “During the lockdown, Parle-G became the comfort food for many; and for several others it was the only food they had on them. This is a common man’s biscuit; people who cannot afford bread – buy Parle-G.”
During this Pandemic numerous state government had send request of bulk purchase of biscuits and many NGOs also bought large quantities of biscuits for which the company kept its production on from March 25 onwards. The company continued to distribute the biscuits and also ensure easy availability at retail outlets.
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