MAM
After branded atta, Parle Products now forays into cereal category
Mumbai: After making its foray into the branded atta segment, Parle Products which specialises in biscuits, snacks, and confectionery has now announced its entry into the cereals category with the launch of ‘Hide & Seek Fills’.
The company aims to produce highly nutritious cereals for an energising breakfast and strengthen its product portfolio for consumers in all age groups. The new product will take advantage of opportunities in the kids snacking market by providing 50 per cent premium chocolate filling to satisfy hunger pangs, serve as an immediate breakfast, and provide a quick sumptuous snack.
According to the company, ‘Hide & Seek Fills’ will continue the rich chocolaty experience established by ‘Hide & Seek’, a kind of Chocolate Chip Cookies, which debuted in 1996. The company’s premium ‘Platina’ range will bring the new mix of healthy and indulgent offerings into the newly launched segment. With the new category introduction, Parle Products will bring innovation to the line of breakfast cereals while providing affordable products to customers without compromising on health or taste. Hide & Seek Fills, offered at Rs. 10 packs across India, is the first step in expanding the cereal category, it said on Thursday.
Parle Products senior category head Krishnarao Buddha said the company’s deep knowledge of consumer behaviour and patterns has enabled it to meet the consumers where they are today. “Our understanding indicated that a lot of people prefer breakfast cereals as healthy options for themselves and their kids. By extending Parle’s portfolio, our goal is to provide consumers with choices on quick and healthy breakfast. Our entry into the niche breakfast cereal industry will give a fresh perception of the values and character represented by the ‘Parle Products’ name,” he said.
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
