Can India move beyond ₹1 candies? Perfetti Van Melle hopes so

₹5 and ₹10, even as ₹1 candies continue to dominate the market. The shift is part of the company’s effort to balance its portfolio in a candy market still heavily skewed toward ultra-low-value purchases.Nearly 70% of Perfetti’s business in India comes from the ₹1 segment, which dominates small mom-and-pop stores and drives the bulk of category sales. The company plans to increase the share of its ₹5-and-above portfolio from about 30% over the next three to four years; this number stood at just 7% in 2019.

Execution will hinge on wider distribution expansion and product innovation.“We don’t want the ₹1 business to shrink in absolute terms. In fact, we want it to continue to grow and remain profitable. The strategy is not to eliminate ₹1, but to ensure that ₹5 and ₹10 products grow much faster.

If that happens, the mix will change naturally over time,” said Nikhil Sharma, managing director of Perfetti Van Melle India. “I would like to double the turnover in the next three to four years. That would be a meaningful and ambitious goal for us,” he added.In fiscal year 2025, Perfetti reported revenues of ₹3,500 crore.Perfetti is the largest player in India’s sugar confectionery market, competing with ITC Ltd, Dharampal Satyapal (DS) Group, and Parle Products.

Earlier this year, Noida-based DS Group reported that its decade-old hard-boiled candy brand, Pulse, crossed ₹750 crore in annual revenue.The main hurdle in moving consumers up the price ladder remains distribution. “Most companies remain stuck selling candies at the ₹1 and ₹2 price points despite the rise of UPI, which has made payments for low-ticket items easier. This is largely because children armed with loose change of ₹10-20 continue to be the predominant consumers