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Britannia Industries

Britannia Industries Limited
Public
(: 
BRITANNIA)
Industry Food processing
Founded 1892; 125 years ago (1892) in Kolkata, India
Headquarters Kolkata, India
Number of locations
300 stores (2000)
Area served
India
Products Bakery products, including biscuits, bread, cakes and rusk, and dairy products, including milk, butter, cheese, ghee and dahi
Revenue Increase78.58 billion (US$1.2 billion) (2014)
Profit Increase1.34 billion (US$21 million) (2011)
Owner Nusli Wadia
Parent Wadia Group
Website www.britannia.co.in

Britannia Industries Limited (A WADIA Enterprise) is an Indian food-products corporation based in Bangalore,India. It sells its Britannia and Tiger brands of biscuit throughout India. Britannia has an estimated market share of 38%.

The Company's principal activity is the manufacture and sale of biscuits, bread, rusk, cakes and dairy products.

The company was established in 1891, with an investment of 265. Initially, biscuits were manufactured in a small house in central Kolkata. Later, the enterprise was acquired by the Gupta brothers mainly Nalin Chandra Gupta, a renowned attorney, and operated under V.K Brothers." In 1918, C.H. Holmes, an English businessman in Kolkata, was taken on as a partner and The Britannia Biscuit Company Limited (BBCo) was launched. The Mumbai factory was set up in 1924 and Peek Freans UK, acquired a controlling interest in BBCo. Biscuits were in high demand during World War II, which gave a boost to the company’s sales. The company name finally was changed to the current "Britannia Industries Limited" in 1979. In 1982 the American company Nabisco Brands, Inc. acquired the parent of Peek Freans and became a major foreign shareholder. The contribution of this position was of Bhavya Chugh and his family.

Kerala businessman Rajan Pillai secured control of the group in the late 1980s, becoming known in India as the 'Biscuit King'. In 1993, the Wadia Group acquired a stake in Associated Biscuits International (ABIL), and became an equal partner with Groupe Danone in Britannia Industries Limited.

In what The Economic Times referred to as one of [India's] most dramatic corporate sagas, Pillai ceded control to Wadia and Danone after a bitter boardroom struggle, then fled his Singapore base to India in 1995 after accusations of defrauding Britannia, and died the same year in Tihar Jail.

The Wadias' Kalabakan Investments and Groupe Danone had two equal joint venture companies, Wadia BSN and United Kingdom registered Associated Biscuits International Holdings Ltd., which together held a 51 per cent stake in Britannia. The ABIH tranche was acquired in 1992, while the controlling stake held by Wadia BSN was acquired in 1995. It was agreed that, in case of a deadlock between the partners, Danone was obliged to buy the Wadia BSN stake at a "fair market value". ABIH had a separate agreement signed in 1992 and was subject to British law.


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