SADIA KAMRAN: WHEN WAS INNOVATIVE BISCUITS INTRODUCED?
UMAIR MUSTAFA: Innovative Biscuits was established in 2006. It began with the idea of providing biscuits with a unique flavour – hence the name ‘Innovative’. We first introduced Digestive and Butter Crunch, and although Digestive remains our flagship brand, our portfolio now includes 21 products, spread across four categories: biscuits (like Digestive), cookies (Butter Crunch), wafers and wafer rolls (Crust) and milk chocolate (Bittens and Bricklane). While most of our brands are unique within their respective categories, we also offer ‘conventional’ biscuits with chocolate chips or cumin seeds in order to cater to every market segment. Our flavour profile and recipes differentiate us from our competitors in each category.   

SK: What makes your products unique?
UM: The Pakistani biscuit industry is dominated by local brands – and even those operating under foreign licenses have local production facilities and have tweaked their recipes to resonate with Pakistani tastes. We believed that Pakistanis wanted products with more international appeal, and we are proud to be the pioneers of Digestive biscuits in Pakistan, a product that enjoys great popularity globally. While a few brands have introduced wheat-based options, none can match our unique recipe. Butter Crunch was another innovation; similarly, Frisky (wafer rolls) has been in the market for 15 years and did not have any local competitors initially. 

SK: How has the size of the biscuit industry changed?
UM: In the last two to three years, the biscuit industry has grown in terms of value but not in terms of volume – the former has increased due to inflation as our manufacturing costs have doubled or tripled. Giants like EBM and Continental Biscuits still claim the lion’s share, and while our sales volumes continue to grow, we are not looking to capture a higher market share. Our goal is to bridge gaps in the market by introducing flavours that are popular in the international market but unavailable domestically. We offer products that are of a higher value to a niche market that understands our quality proposition and the importance of products that are free from artificial colours and preservatives. Our unique recipes and the fact that we use pure ingredients set us apart.

SK: What are the challenges that come from being free from artificial colours or flavours?
UM: The biggest challenge is that natural ingredients do not ensure the golden colour associated with biscuits and consequently some of our products are a pale shade of yellow. Colour plays a crucial role in defining the overall profile of the biscuit, and the more food colouring there is, the more aesthetically pleasing the biscuit’s colour. In our focus groups, the feedback was that our cookies looked dull, but once consumers were informed that no artificial colours were used, they understood and appreciated this. 

SK: How has your growth trajectory been? 
UM: We have experienced rapid growth over the years. We built a wide distribution network that spans urban, semi-urban and rural areas from Karachi to Gilgit. Although our products have a long shelf life, we ensure frequent deliveries to retail outlets to maintain a consistent supply of fresh stock. Initially, we focused on increasing distribution and were not very visible in mass media.

SK: Has this changed?
UM: In the last eight years, we have focused on establishing a strong presence on TV, print, OOH and digital. 

SK: How are you positioning your brands to engage with your target audience?
UM: We primarily target the young generations – Gen Z and Alpha. However, it is not that clear-cut, and we also target Millennials to an extent. We position ourselves as an innovative and futuristic brand. Our audiences are not active on traditional communication channels and to connect with them we need to think creatively and establish a strong presence in the digital space. 

SK: There has been an increase in advertising of biscuits by different brands. What would you attribute this to? 
UM: With rising inflation, customers have become price-sensitive, leading to an increase in the sale of unbranded biscuits and cheaper brands. To maintain market shares, brands need to constantly invest in marketing in order to establish top-of-mind awareness and brand loyalty. Also, the snacking industry has grown in terms of the options available to consumers, and marketing efforts are required to discourage the consumption of other snacks (cupcakes, cake bars, granola bars, popcorn, etc.) and maintain the share biscuits have in the snacking category. These challenges have been identified by the industry as a whole and most brands are making efforts to maintain their shares by increasing their marketing spend and also by engaging customers through unconventional ways – dedicated spaces at events such as Karachi Eat or creating influencer-based content.

SK: What do you mean by unconventional media?
UM: For example, for our brand Jumbo Junior (milk and glucose cookies for children) we conducted on-ground activities in schools that included content that was educational; for example, the importance of water conservation. These activities do not focus on pushing a product but rather on engaging consumers. For Digestive, we complemented our TVCs with content featuring Dananeer Mobeen. Digestive also has a platform called Digestive Showtime, which was introduced in 2021 and features short films on our YouTube channel focusing on social or cultural issues. This was a high-budget project, as each film was 30 to 40 minutes long and featured top celebrities. The first season attracted 90,000 subscribers to our channel within a year. The second season is currently being shot and we hope to receive even more positive feedback. We believe that content marketing is the future and we have dedicated resources to creating content to promote our brands. 

SK: What are your short- and long-term goals for Innovative Biscuits?
UM: Every goal is defined by staying true to our core value – innovation – and providing unique products. We have been dealing with frequent cost increases but despite this, we do not compromise on the quality of our products and the ingredients we use. It’s a promise we have made and intend to keep. In the long term, we have developed an internal philosophy whereby we are not afraid of experimentation and failure. Our R&D team frequently develops new recipes, but if we find them to be too similar to other market offerings, we are not shy of abandoning them and starting over. Some additions to our portfolio are in the pipeline, and our R&D team understands that we will not settle for ordinary, me-too recipes. We are committed to infusing innovation into every recipe before it is rolled out.

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