How is instant noodles brand Wai Wai staying relevant in a Maggi dominated market?

For starters, one can eat it straight from the pack. For the rest over to GP Sah, global business head - FMCG, Chaudhary Group (Wai Wai's owner).

Wai Wai, the Nepal-based instant noodles brand (from CG Foods), is telling Indians that they can eat noodles without cooking it, like a crunchy snack. Over the last few decades, the brand has been actively strengthening its presence in India and has found strong footing alongside brands like Maggi (Nestle) and Yippee (ITC).

Unlike the category code of instant noodle advertising, Wai Wai’s ads give ‘ad moms’ and the steaming bowls a clear miss. The brand has been pushing the snack format of consumption.

The noodle cakes of its flagship product Wai Wai are flavoured and brown in colour. They can be eaten straight out of the pack. Wai Wai also sells a broken down noodle version in a ‘bhujiya’ format. While the bhujiya sachets (price) start at Re 1, the noodle packs start at Rs 5. The Rs 5 and Rs 10 packs sell the most.

It also has regular noodles in its portfolio that need to be cooked. Apart from the regular flavours, it has the atta variant. Wai Wai evenoffers a Jain noodle variant which does not include garlic and onion in the ingredient list.

The company claims that it commands 20 per cent of the instant noodles market (in volume terms) in India. Market research agencies peg Wai Wai’s value share at around 11 per cent. Reports suggest that the Indian instant noodles market is valued at around Rs 8,000 crore to Rs 10,000 crore. The market is currently dominated by Nestle’s Maggi.

However, there’s a rather interesting story about how the brand actually entered India. It has a lot to do with the friendly relations between India and Nepal. Wai Wai was brought to India by the Nepali nationals, who were travelling to the country, thanks to the limited border restrictions in the past. The brand went wherever Nepalis went.

Looking at the growing appetite for the product in India, the company decided to initiate its export business in the early 1990s. Export-backed distribution expanded across north and east India. However, repeated blockades due to insurgency and the cost of exporting forced the company to opt for a better solution – local manufacturing.

Also Read: Is Maggi's '2 minute' proposition sandwiched between Saffola's '5 minutes' and Wai Wai's '0 minutes'?

CG Foods set up a manufacturing unit in Rangpo, Sikkim (in 2005), with an office in Siliguri (West Bengal). This was followed by units in Assam (Chaygaon and Silchar), Uttarakhand (Pantnagar), Andhra Pradesh (Chittoor), Bihar (Purnia), and the latest one being in Rupangadh, Rajasthan (in 2020).

In terms of consumption, India currently consumes 25 per cent more Wai Wai than Nepal. The opportunity lies in the under-penetrated noodles market in India. Nepal, a country of around 30 million people, has an annual per capita noodle consumption of 55 packs. For India, which is a country of 1.3 billion-plus people, it is a meagre five packs.

GP Sah, global business head - FMCG, Chaudhary Group, expects the consumer spending on Wai Wai brand to cross Rs 1,000 crore in FY 20-21. The brand recently appointed Havas Media as its media agency, and has allocated Rs 10 crore for advertising for the ongoing financial year (apart from on ground promotions).

As far as distribution goes, it is driven by general trade, followed by presence in modern trade outlets like Reliance, DMart, Big Bazaar and Spencers. Wai Wai entered e-commerce by listing on platforms like BigBasket, Grofers, Amazon and Flipkart last year.

The company had to drop its plans to export from India due to cost issues. It now has manufacturing plants in Bangladesh, Serbia and Kazakhstan. CG Foods sells Wai Wai in more than 35 countries, including the US, UK, Japan, Australia, and the Middle East.

The brand is currently putting into motion plans to expand the Wai Wai brand beyond noodles, into categories like sauces, vinegar and other ready-to-cook products.

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