Parle G: the King of Biscuits

Before India’s independence, foreign goods were sold at a very high cost everywhere in the Indian market. At that time candy is very popular among them and Parle G Founder Mohan Lal Dayal, was not happy with this, he was influenced by the Swadeshi movement. 

And he decided to make candy like this in India. So that Indian consumers can also buy those candy and enjoy it with their families.

To achieve this he went to Germany and learnt to make candies and he came to India with the candy maker machine of cost Rs 60,000 at that time. He started a business in Mumbai and purchased an old factory in between Irla and Parla in Mumbai and that's how Parle comes into existence it’s the area, where the factory started. At the starting stage, the company had only 12 employees and all these 12 employees were family members only.

The first Parle product was the iconic orange candy which is still popular till now. During the British period, biscuits were luxury products and were only produced and consumed by the elite class. The company was mastering in the world of confectioneries and toffees. During the crisis of World War 2, the first Parle G biscuit was produced in 1939. In the beginning, its name was Parle Gluco.

This wheat made biscuit is of very affordable price and the majority of Indian people can buy this biscuit easily. Parle Gluco was by Indians and for Indians. They were much in demand by the British-Indian army during the second world war.

The Parle Gluco biscuit became very popular at that time and it captures all the market very easily. All British companies started losing their market share. After the end of the second world war, Parle Gluco had become a major brand in Biscuits.

Well, Business never has been a smooth ride and in 1947 production stopped. Here’s why: 

In 1947, the production of the biscuits had stopped for a brief time due to the shortage of wheat after India’s independence. They produced barley biscuits until the supplies for wheat were restored. After the production was stopped, people started scarcity of Parle biscuit and this was realized by the company soon and they promise to start the production soon.

And in 1982, Parle Gluco's name was changed to Parle G as the company didn’t have a patent on the Gluco word. So other companies in the market start taking advantage of Gluco or Glucose word and start using it at the end of their biscuits name. Due to this, Parle sale was very influenced and this is the main reason behind changing the parle gluco biscuit name.

As of today, there are 400 million Parle G biscuits being produced daily. 14,600 crore biscuit packets are sold every year. In 2013, Parle-G also became India's first FMCG brand to cross the Rs. 5000 Cr mark in retail sales. 

Over the years, the brand has beaten competition like no other. There is no replacement for Parle G. The only biscuit that has been consistent in taste since forever. The perfect partner for our beloved Chai, Parle G!

Here’s some interesting trivia to end the story of the world’s largest selling biscuit!

If you line up all the Parle G biscuits consumed annually, end to end, you can go around the Earth 192 times.

The amount of sugar used to make 13 billion Parle G biscuits — 16,100 tons — can cover the streets of the world’s smallest city, the Vatican City.

400 million Parle G biscuits are produced daily, and if a month’s production of the biscuits is stacked side by side, the distance between the Earth and the Moon can be covered.