The Business Problem

A North Indian food business had once tasted breakout success with instant noodles during the Maggi crisis. That credibility helped them expand into biscuits and cookies. But three years in, the food division was stuck at ₹250 crore. Despite multiple innovations in premium formats, growth had plateaued. The founder believed the innovations were solid. But somehow, the market wasn’t responding.

What We Uncovered

We ran a full diagnostic, workshop first, then market immersion. The product portfolio leaned premium, but retail visibility was weak. On ground, we saw a system built for wholesale push, not retail pull. Store execution was inconsistent. Sales teams were ex-tobacco distributors, trained to move volume, not engage with top end retailers.

The real insight was that the company was launching for the top end, but selling through a team wired for the mass market. There was no product market fit. Not because of the product or the market, but because the team and the GTM model weren’t aligned.

The Strategic Shift

We offered two choices: train the sales team for premium retail, or reverse engineer innovation to match sales strength. The founder picked the latter. We agreed. High end products would always remain niche in a wholesale-first system. So we recut the portfolio to focus on what the team could sell.

How We Brought the Positioning to Life

We simplified the innovation pipeline and cut the portfolio from 85 to 42 SKUs. Then, we mapped store types by portfolio relevance—moving from A B C classifications to real world categories like bakeries, food stores, and grocers. Sales teams were armed with clear actions per store type, structured but not alien. The changes respected ground reality and built from it.

What Changed

Growth shot up from 2 percent to 12 percent. The business crossed ₹500 crore in under three years. All this without changing the team. Just by aligning the GTM, sharpening the SKU mix, and launching innovations that the system could sell.