Horlicks blinks as kids favour less sugar to 'taller, stronger, sharper'

For a century, children in India have been brought up on malt-flavored powdered milk drinks that they thought would help make them healthy and strong. Now the $1 billion industry is set for a shake-up after two of the biggest producers, GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Kraft Heinz Co. put the businesses up for sale and consumers switch to drinks with less sugar.

Malted milk drinks, which are as much as one-third sugar, have been breakfast staples of upwardly mobile families in India since soldiers brought GlaxoSmithKline’s Horlicks back with them after the First World War. Now, after a decade of double-digit growth, sales in India rose 8.6 per cent in 2017 and could drop to half that this year. By 2022, the market will expand by only 2.7 per cent, Euromonitor forecasts.

“Their core categories are growing at a much slower rate than they have been in the past,” said Amnish Agarwal, an equity analyst who follows the Indian consumer products market for brokerage Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt. in Mumbai. “That may be one reason they’re reducing their presence.” Read Complete Article

Business Standard