Maggi, India’s go-to option for instant noodles, has seen sales increase significantly amid the coronavirus lockdown. Maggi’s sales are up 25% from pre-COVID figures as consumers under lockdown stocked the brand of instant noodles. Nestlé India chief executive Suresh Narayanan said the company had stepped up manufacturing at its five Maggi factories during the lockdown.

According to an article in The Economic Times, some kirana stores have also started stocking the 1.68kg packs containing 24 Maggi noodle cakes because they are running out of smaller packs. Demand for Maggi increased 20-25% in the run-up to the lockdown.

The head of India’s 12,000 crore rupee unit said they had stepped up manufacturing at eight factories, including the five factories that produce Maggi during Lockdown 1.0. This involved reviving all the hundreds of suppliers, wheat flour millers, packaging suppliers and service providers, he said.

“Huge efforts were made by teams across factories in the most difficult situation. My team’s mission was inspired to rise up to a national cause and provide a vital brand at that time,” Narayanan said.

Read also : Why Parle-G, sales of other brands of cookies exploded during lockdown

However, love for Maggi seems to be at odds with emerging trends in healthy eating. Even though Maggi has tried to revamp the brand’s health credentials with improved recipes and wheat variations, instant noodles don’t really fall into the healthy options category.

Nonetheless, Narayanan believes that Maggi’s convenience and versatility and people lacking in cooking skills would ensure that noodles remain on the essentials list and continue to drive sales up. “Maggi is considered a“ loyal friend. ”There is a mixture of love and worship, giving Maggi human form when he’s a noodle – that’s the power of a brand and what it represents in the minds and hearts of consumers, ”he says.

Narayanan’s assessment is relevant. Not only Maggi, convenient food options like cookies saw record sales during the lockdown. Parle Products said its market share has increased by 5 percent. All-price cookies such as Britannia’s Good Day, Tiger, Bourbon, Marie, Milk Bikis, as well as Parle’s Monaco, Hide & Seek and Krackjack recorded high sales. But the star of the bunch is the low-cost Parle-G which posted its highest sales figures in eight decades.

Read also : Coronavirus effect: Parle-G records the best sales in 8 decades; manufacturer’s market share increases by 5%