BANGALORE: Chennai-based Nutrine Confectionery Company has decided to intensify the battle with Cadbury's in the Eclairs segment.

The company has launched Nutrine Éclair Hazelnut in Bangalore, entering the Re 1 segment that has so far been dominated by Cadbury's. Nutrine expects to capture 20 per cent of this market.

The overall Eclair market is worth around Rs 2.1 billion, of which Nutrine, Nestle and Cadbury have a 30 per cent market share each, in terms of volume while Parry’s holds a 3-5 per cent share, according to senior VP (Marketing and Sales) of the company B L Venkateswar.

For both Nutrine (which till now did not have a Re 1 offering) and Nestlé, it is the 50 paise milk Eclair from where the bulk of their revenues in this segment come.

Venkateswar feels that there is a demand for the Re1 Eclair segment in the metros and class A cities and estimates its present share to be around Rs 650 million. Éclair Hazelnut will add around Rs 200 million to Nutrine's share this year. They have doubled their ad budgets to Rs 160 million, of which Rs 80 million will be spent on Eclair campaigns.

Around 90 per cent of this year’s budget will be spent on TV advertising. The new campaign for the Éclair Hazelnut will hit TV screens around mid June, according to Nutrine deputy marketing manager P Sekar. GIII (Gray Worldwide) has done the creative work and OMS is responsible for media.

The Eclair segment witnessed an estimated 20 per cent year-on-year growth, as against the confectionery industry growth of 5 per cent. The total confectionery market is worth around Rs 12 billion (organized sector) while a further Rs 6 billion comes from the unorganised sector. This figure does not include imports, which could be as much as 5 per cent of the market.

Nutrine has annual revenues of Rs 3.36 billion. The products in Nutrine’s portfolio include Maha Lacto, Naturo Fruit bar with its soft center candies, Nutrine Honey fab, Nutrine Aaam Ras and Nutrine Gulkhand.