?Pulse becomes top player in hard-boiled candy market
?Pulse becomes top player in hard-boiled candy market

Launched by the DS Group only two years ago, Pulse candy has become the biggest player in the hard-boiled candy (HBC) market, doubling its sales to Rs 326 crore in 2016-17 over the previous year.

Pulse is closely followed by Indonesian coffee-flavoured brand Kopiko at around Rs 306 crore.

This mirrors a trend of hard-boiled candies driving the Rs 8,500-crore ($1.3-billion) Indian confectionery market with other prominent categories such as eclairs and gums showing sluggish growth due to lack of innovation.

Sameer Shukla, Executive Director, Nielsen India, said, Innovations, new launches of brands and variants are driving candies segment growth to a 15% level, almost double the rate at which confectionery category is growing at."

According to Nielsen, from being just a third of the of the overall confectionery market last year, HBCs currently account for nearly half of the total confectionery market.

Shashank Surana, VP, New product development, DS Group, said, "With Pulse, we managed to lure adult consumers."

Krishna Rao, Category Head, Parle Products, said, "The HBC segment has strong sub-categories such as lacto candies, cough lozenges and digestive candies. Most major players are present in that category. It has grown so big that when a new player comes in and studies the market, it decides to launch in that particular segment instead of innovating in others."

He said, "Apart from HBC, another segment in the confectionery market that has grown exponentially is jellies. Around three years ago, there was only Falero from Mapro. But it took off so well that it prompted others, including us, to follow suit with new brands."

 
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