FOODLES THE NUTRITIONAL INSTANT NOODLES

Noodles form a part of the regular food that are given to children in day to day life. They are
consumed by not only children but also almost all age groups because of its varied tastes and
flavours. Parent prefer noodles because of two main reasons. One is because of the less time
it takes for cooking and the second it is easy for serving and consumption. China is the first
country that introduced noodles to the world. Noodles are a regular food of Chinese. Noodles
are prepared from wheat, small amount of Maida and a little water. There are some Chinese
noodles which are prepared from rice too. It is all because of the place and cultivation in
those places. North China has more wheat cultivation and vice versa. Maggi introduced
instant noodles in India in 1982. The tagline of Ready to cook, Ready to serve and 2-Minute
noodles made Maggi the most reputed brand in India.

GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSK) entered the instant noodles market which is
ruled by a brand that is synonymous with the category Nestls Maggi. The market for
instant noodles is worth Rs 1,137 crore, according to Nielsen, and is growing at 20 per cent
per annum. Foodles is GSKs attempt to get a share of the above noodle market. It has
entered the competition not only with Nestls Maggi but also with Hindustan Unilevers
Knorr Soupy Noodles and ITCs Sunfeast Yippee. Maggi (after the scandal), Sunfeast and
Knorr have a fair share of the market due to their lower price tags while Foodles have
comparatively lesser market share (around 2 percent) due to their price. GSK claims that
Foodles is nutritional instant noodles. The company claims the proof lies in the test-
marketing. IMRB report says 45 per cent of all households consume instant noodles. But
GSKs internal studies showed that instant noodles were not usually considered healthy. It
found that mothers felt guilty serving instant noodles to children because Maida is not as
healthy as Atta or whole gram wheat. As a result, mothers fortified the noodles with
vegetables and eggs. This was a vital clue for GSK before it got started. The fact that the
category is so lopsided presents a bigger opportunity than usual to position oneself differently
and get heard. Even though instant noodles right now have their centre of gravity in taste, the
claim of GSK is to offer noodles along with nutrition. But Maggi repositioned itself as a
healthier snack option some years ago when it introduced rice and Atta noodles, and adopted
the tagline, Taste bhi, health bhi (Taste as well as health) although the contribution of these
variants to its total turnover remains small.
The proposition of GSK is that Foodles will target the urban consumers unlike Maggi which
has gone deep into rural markets also. Its multigrain variant costs Rs 15 for 80 gm compared
to Maggis Rs 10 for 80 gm. To be sure, there exist smaller brands than Maggi and Knorr in
the market like Capital Foods Chings Secret and Smith & Jones, and Choudhary Groups
Wai Wai. GSK may try to gain a foothold in the market by displacing these brands first. It is
crucial for Foodles to succeed. It is, after all, a part of GSKs diversification beyond malted
health drinks based on indigenously developed products. Good business sense requires GSK
to spread its risks across more products and more markets. As income levels rise and
packaged food finds more takers, experimental users will fragment the instant noodles
market.