Cargill India launches mid-segment variant of Sweekar oil

Cargill India is rolling out a mid-segment variant of sunflower oil brand Sweekar in a bid to push sales and gain market share.
The company had bought Sweekar from Marico in 2011. It had then re-launched the product as a premium sunflower oil brand, Sweekar Advanced, at a price of Rs 145 per litre compared with Rs 90 per litre earlier.

The company had then said that the premium variant was fortified with a high blend of oliec sunflower oil, which is known to have the highest content of mono unsaturated fatty acid. Sweekar Advanced competes with Saffola and Sundrop brands, which have a market share of 50 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively.

According to Aseem Soni, Director (Consumer Pack Vertical), Cargill India, though the premiumisation strategy enabled the Sweekar brand a consistent market share of 15 per cent, it also distanced the brand from around 30 per cent of consumers who didn't find value in paying a 30 to 35 per cent marked-up price.

"Sweekar, at a Rs 90 price point, is a 100 per cent sunflower oil brand with no oliec. With this launch we hope to get back the 30 per cent consumers that we lost to other brands, which include our own brand, Gemini," he says.

Soni says demand for sunflower oil has been consistently on the rise. "Research showed us that the same consumers who had drifted away from Sweekar had been flirting with a dozen other brands and were not really happy. We decided to listen to our consumers and come with a mid-segment Sweekar."

The company's other bet has been on branded flour, which it had launched in 2003 under the Nature Fresh brand name. It withdrew the brand as there were few takers for branded flour then. The company forayed into branded flour last year, once again under the same Nature Fresh brand name.

"We are targeting consumers who are moving towards branded flour. With over 95 per cent of flour consumers still preferring the unbranded mill flour, we have ensured that our formulation is as close to mill flour. Consumers don't relish the fine talcum powder-like flour that most brands make," says Soni.