MegaBrands · Biscuits, premium and cream

Britannia: How a Kolkata Bakery From 1892 Sets India’s Benchmark in Premium and Cream Biscuits

Britannia, selected as the Mega Brand for Biscuits, premium and cream by the Business Intelligence Unit of WCRC (World Centre for Research and Consulting), began as a small bakery in Kolkata in 1892 with an investment of Rs 295. In FY2025-26, Britannia Industries reported consolidated revenue from operations of Rs 19,151.59 crore.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial · Published October 2026 · 9 min read

At a glance

Britannia is the food brand of Britannia Industries Ltd, whose story began in Kolkata in 1892. Its biscuit range runs from everyday staples to premium cookies and cream biscuits such as Good Day, Bourbon, Pure Magic, Treat and Jim Jam. Led by Chairman Nusli N. Wadia and Managing Director and CEO Rakshit Hargave, the company runs 20 factories and reported consolidated revenue from operations of Rs 19,151.59 crore in FY2025-26. It has been selected as the Mega Brand for Biscuits, premium and cream by the Business Intelligence Unit of WCRC.

Britannia has been part of Indian snacking for more than 130 years. The company calls itself “a household name in India”, and its annual report speaks of “a portfolio that has earned a place in millions of households”. In the premium and cream shelf, that familiarity comes with a promise of something a little richer: butter and nuts in a Good Day cookie, chocolate cream in a Bourbon, a filled tart from Pure Magic.

The story starts in 1892, in a small house in Calcutta, with an investment of Rs 295. In 1918 the business was incorporated as the Britannia Biscuit Company, and in 1979 it took the name Britannia Industries. The company still carries its Kolkata registration today.

In FY2025-26, Britannia Industries reported consolidated revenue from operations of Rs 19,151.59 crore, across biscuits and its other food categories.

WCRC MegaBrands covers 501 categories in India and selects one benchmark brand in each. It looks at brands through five pillars: Brand Positioning & Recall; Consumer Trust & Sentiment; Product, Innovation & Delivery; Sustainability, Governance & ESG; and Digital & Financial Soundness. Britannia has been selected as the Mega Brand for Biscuits, premium and cream by the Business Intelligence Unit of WCRC (World Centre for Research and Consulting). Here is how Britannia’s record lines up with each pillar.

Pillar 1: How Britannia Owns Share of Mind

Brand Positioning & Recall · weighted 28% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this

Britannia is easy to hear before it is seen. Its sonic signature, “Ting Ting Ti-Ding”, dates from the 1980s, before sonic branding was a common term, according to the company. In October 2024 the tune found a new home on a quick-commerce app, where it played when a shopper added a Britannia product to the cart. Amit Doshi, Britannia’s Chief Marketing Officer at the time, explained why the brand guards it: “A sonic signature tune encapsulates a brand’s immersive and sensory experience. What we hear and what we see have a far greater impact in our memories than anything else.”

The second source of recall is Good Day. Launched in 1987, the brand brought nuts and dry fruits to an everyday biscuit, and Britannia says it created the cookie category in India. In 2021 Good Day went through what the company called its biggest makeover, carving several kinds of smiles into the biscuit itself. Varun Berry, Managing Director at the time, put the idea simply: “Isn’t it interesting that in our daily interactions, the parting wish to people is always a ‘Good Day’, no matter how our own day is panning out? This universal insight inspires the work we do on Good Day.”

The third is the name on the pack. Britannia’s products carry the parent brand beside the product name: Britannia Good Day, Britannia Bourbon, Britannia Pure Magic. Each launch adds to a single store of memory. The brand’s identity has also moved with the times. In 1997 Britannia adopted a new corporate identity and the line “Eat Healthy, Think Better”, and in FY2025-26 Good Day extended its “microjoys” idea into a celebration of moments that move from “good to great”.

Pillar 2: Why India Trusts Britannia

Consumer Trust & Sentiment · weighted 26% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this

Trust in Britannia is built on time. The brand traces its line back to 1892. Mr Doshi described that bond in 2024: “Britannia evokes childhood memories among our consumers. The brand is an extension of their daily lives.”

Trust also depends on what goes into the pack. Britannia reports its progress on nutrition each year against a FY2018-19 base. By FY2025-26 it had cut sugar by 3.50% per serving and sodium by 12.23% per serving across its products, and raised wholegrain content per serving by 269.47%. New launches in the year included Milk Bikis SMART, enriched with DHA, and NutriChoice 100% Millets Cookies.

Access matters as much as recipe. When Good Day was redesigned in 2021, its packs started at Rs 5. And as Britannia has pushed deeper into the countryside, rural markets have grown from about a quarter of its sales to about 40%, according to Mr Berry, then Vice Chairman and Managing Director, in September 2025.

Pillar 3: The Engine Behind Every Britannia Pack

Product, Innovation & Delivery · weighted 20% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this

Britannia’s premium and cream range is wide and still growing. Its FY2025-26 annual report names Good Day, Bourbon, Treat, Pure Magic, Jim Jam and 50-50 among its brands. The report sets out the aim plainly: “Britannia’s premiumisation agenda is focused on making familiar snacking occasions more differentiated, sensorial and experience-led through richer formats, sharper product cues and stronger channel-ready offerings.”

That agenda showed up on the shelf in FY2025-26. Pure Magic launched Choco Tarts, described by the company as “a crunchy baked tart shell layered with rich choco crème and a delicate biscuit lid”, in Milk Choco and Hazelnut variants. Bourbon arrived in a new form as Bourbon Rolls, a rolled wafer with chocolate filling. Good Day added Crafted variants such as Butter Jeera and Fruit and Nut, and launched Good Day Chunkies.

Behind the launches sits a large manufacturing base. Britannia runs 20 factories, and in FY2025-26 it added a new biscuit line at Tirunelveli and an advanced wafer line at Gwalior.

Getting packs to shelves is the other half of the job. In FY2024-25, Britannia reached about 29 lakh outlets directly. In September 2025 the company said it wanted rural India to account for close to half of its domestic sales within three to four years, up from about 40%. New channels are growing too: by the end of FY2025-26, e-commerce contributed about 6% of the domestic business, according to Mr Hargave.

Pillar 4: Britannia, a Brand Built to Last

Sustainability, Governance & ESG · weighted 16% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this

Britannia’s governance is that of a listed public company. Its 107th annual general meeting was held on 7 August 2026, chaired by Nusli N. Wadia, where shareholders adopted the FY2025-26 accounts and approved the final dividend. Leadership changes follow the same process. Rakshit Hargave took charge as Managing Director and CEO on 15 December 2025, and shareholders approved his five-year appointment by postal ballot in March 2026. From 1 October 2026, N. Venkataraman, with the company since 2007, became Deputy Managing Director, and Ramamurthy Jayaraman became Chief Financial Officer.

The company reports steady work on its environmental footprint. In FY2025-26, renewable sources supplied about 35% of Britannia’s electricity, or 51.64 million kWh. It reused 55.39% of the water it withdrew. In packaging, 70.08% of its plastic packaging and 59.65% of its laminates were recyclable.

Britannia also puts its core skill, making biscuits, to work on nutrition. Through the Britannia Nutrition Foundation, it reached more than 5.10 lakh direct beneficiaries in FY2025-26, across 16 districts and more than 1,900 villages. Under its Anaemia Management Programme, more than 1,75,000 school-aged children and adolescents received iron-fortified biscuits. The company’s CSR obligation for the year was Rs 54.51 crore.

Pillar 5: Britannia’s Growth With Financial Strength

Digital & Financial Soundness · weighted 10% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this

Britannia’s numbers show steady growth at scale. Britannia Industries’ consolidated sales rose 7.5% from Rs 17,535 crore in FY2024-25 to Rs 18,858 crore in FY2025-26. Consolidated revenue from operations reached Rs 19,151.59 crore in FY2025-26, up 6.7%, and consolidated net profit rose 16.5% to about Rs 2,537 crore. The board recommended a final dividend of Rs 90.50 per share. These are company-wide figures, covering biscuits and Britannia’s other food categories.

The momentum carried into the new year. In April to June 2026, revenue from operations grew about 8% to Rs 4,999.97 crore, and net profit rose about 14%. Mr Hargave said the company exited the quarter with mid-teens revenue growth, led by fast growth in e-commerce and general trade.

Digital tools now shape how the brand talks to shoppers. In FY2025-26 Bourbon brought back its “BourbonIT Challenge 2.0” as a voice-enabled, AI-powered recipe experience in seven Indian languages.

The Britannia Benchmark

Every category has leaders. A MegaBrand is the brand its category is measured against. Britannia holds that place in premium and cream biscuits because its record is strong on every pillar at once. It is widely recognised, trusted across generations, able to launch and deliver at national scale, governed as a listed company with clear reporting, and financially strong enough to keep investing in new formats.

Above all, it shows that a brand born in the nineteenth century can keep making familiar treats feel new. As Mr Hargave put it when announcing the FY2025-26 results: “Going forward, we will continue to focus on driving growth across core and adjacent categories through a robust pipeline of innovations, agile execution and higher investment in advertising & brands.”

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About Britannia

Britannia is the brand of Britannia Industries Ltd, a listed food company whose story began in Kolkata in 1892. It makes biscuits, from everyday staples to premium cookies and cream biscuits such as Good Day, Bourbon and Pure Magic, along with other foods. The company runs 20 factories, reached about 29 lakh outlets directly in FY2024-25 and reported consolidated revenue from operations of Rs 19,151.59 crore in FY2025-26. Britannia has been selected as the Mega Brand for Biscuits, premium and cream by the Business Intelligence Unit of WCRC (World Centre for Research and Consulting).