Biscoff in India: Mondelez's bet on mass-premium cookies

I saw these billboards in Mumbai last week - back to back! 

When I dug deep, I found that Biscoff is attempting to become abundantly available without feeling cheap.

Biscoff developed a cult status majorly through airline distribution - and now faces the question every successful niche brand eventually confronts: how do you scale without selling out?

The answer could be in Alwar, Rajasthan, where Mondelez is manufacturing Biscoff cookies for the first time outside Europe. This means:

• Local production. 

• Ten-rupee price points. 

• Mass distribution Mondelez’s extensive network. 

India, a market where Biscoff currently represents barely anything of Lotus Bakeries' revenue, is being positioned to become a top-three global market.

But is it really possible to match premium positioning with highly accessible price points?

P.S. There’s a business idea at the end of this to hop on the Biscoff bet in India 👇

Let’s look at their business journey!

About Lotus Biscoff

Biscoff originated in the 1930s in Belgium and in 1985, Lotus Bakeries acquired the recipe and produced it at a larger scale (Source). 

In 1985, a food broker convinced Delta Air Lines to serve them on flights, and since then, the cookies started travelling across the globe - literally - by becoming almost a staple in airlines.

Then they made it even harder to resist by launching cookie butter in 2008.

The brand had become both ingredient and identity. 

By 2024, Lotus Bakeries was generating close to 16 percent topline growth, with Biscoff accounting for 56% of the company's total revenue of €600 million.

Production lines in Belgium and North Carolina ran at maximum capacity, operating 24/7 to meet demand. They're building a third facility in Thailand set to open in 2026. Even with record output, they couldn't make enough.

This is the position every founder dreams of - demand outstripping supply, cult status, and premium pricing power. Biscoff could have stayed exclusive, kept raising prices, and remained the special cookie.

Instead, they chose India.

The Indian Biscuit Market and Biscoff

India's biscuit market is a 5.05 billion dollar battleground growing at roughly 10 percent annually. 

Three companies - Britannia, Parle, and ITC - control over 70 percent of it. 

Parle's flagship Parle-G, priced at five rupees, is one of the most consumed biscuits on the planet. 

So where does a Belgian cookie that most Indians have only encountered on international flights fit in?

The answer lies in the category share of the Indian biscuits market: 

Brittania has the major share in the cookies market with brands like Good Day and Nutri Choice. 

Mondelez also has cookies like Oreo and Belvita in its portfolio. The recent addition of Lotus Biscoff might just put it neck to neck with competitors in the coming years. 

Biscoff in India starts at ten rupees and goes up, depending on pack size. That is higher than Parle-G’s entry point pricing, but well below imported premium cookies.

When Biscoff was imported, customs duties and logistics pushed retail prices to 250-300 rupees. Only a tiny fraction of Indian consumers could access it, mostly through specialty stores or e-commerce. Local manufacturing changes the entire equation.

But if they manufacture in India, won't it taste like a generic glucose biscuit?

Even though the flour, sugar, and oil are sourced in India to keep costs low, the "soul" of the biscuit is still imported.

The partnership is mutual: Mondelez handles everything - manufacturing, marketing, distribution. But Lotus Bakeries retains total control over the secret recipe.

This protects taste while allowing local production to scale. It's the McDonald's fries strategy applied to cookies: centralized recipe, decentralized execution. 

Potential Challenges 

Firstly, there’s the cautionary tale of Unibic. 

It entered India in 2004 as a premium cookie brand with Australian ingredients Eventually, it tried to scale with five-rupee packs to penetrate rural markets, but somewhere in that journey from niche to national, the magic faded. 

Unibic is still around, still profitable, but once you're in the five-rupee price band fighting with glucose biscuits for shelf space, you're no longer premium - you’re just another option. And Biscoff's ten-rupee entry point is already dangerously close to that line.

Next, the largest market for biscuits in India is the North region.

In that area, chai (tea) is the go-to beverage which comes with its own universe of snacks - samosas, pakoras, namkeen, traditional biscuits designed specifically to complement masala chai's spiced, milky intensity.

Biscoff was designed for coffee. The name literally combines "biscuit" and "coffee." 

Consumption occasions define product success in emerging markets. So, will the mass culture be a challenge, even at mass pricing?

Oreo succeeded in India by teaching people to twist, lick, and dunk - creating a ritual around the product. Biscoff might also need to convince Indians that this cookie deserves its own moment, separate from chai time, distinct from traditional snacking.

Mondelez is partnering with hotels, airlines, and coffee chains to replicate the premium pairing experience. Quick-service restaurants are creating Biscoff-flavored desserts. The strategy is to create new consumption occasions rather than fit into existing ones.

But creating new rituals is exponentially harder than fitting into existing ones. It requires sustained marketing investment, consistent messaging, and patience. 

What This Means for Business

How do you take something scarce and make it abundant without destroying what made people want it in the first place?

Manufacturing, distribution network, or the pricing strategy are execution details. 

The answer is in understanding what your product actually means to people.

Biscoff sells a feeling of indulgence, the small pleasure that makes an ordinary experience special. 

The challenge for Mondelez is maintaining that feeling when the product becomes commonplace. When it's available at every kirana shop, when everyone can have it anytime they want, does the magic survive accessibility?

Luxury brands solve this through pricing and limited distribution. But Biscoff isn't a luxury. It's premium, which is different. Premium means better than ordinary but not unreachable. Premium means you can have it often enough to appreciate it but not so often that it becomes routine.

Biscoff has genuine product differentiation. But the context and meaning that the brand creates, creates the brand. 

The stories people tell themselves about why they choose one product over another - that's what builds enduring value.

Lotus Bakeries is betting that accessibility doesn't have to mean ubiquity.

The real test is whether they can manufacture at scale, but if they can maintain desire in the presence of abundance.

Business Idea

Mondelez is partnering with quick-service restaurants for Biscoff desserts, but nobody's building dedicated Biscoff experiences yet. That's an opportunity. 

Imagine a dessert café - "Everything Biscoff" - where the entire menu revolves around one obsessively loved ingredient: Biscoff cheesecakes, lattes with cookie butter foam, ice cream sandwiches, waffles with cookie crumbles. 

You don't need to convince anyone the product tastes good. You just need to create the perfect consumption environment. 

The timing is perfect:

• Local manufacturing means lower ingredient costs. 

• Mondelez's marketing push creates ambient awareness. 

• The premiumization trend means consumers are actively seeking differentiated dessert experiences beyond generic ice cream parlors. 

The playbook: start in metros with high foot traffic near colleges or malls, design Instagram-worthy spaces with Biscoff-colored interiors, price items in the 80-250 rupee range - above street food, below fine dining. 

You can also try to partner with Mondelez for ingredient supply and potential co-marketing. They get experiential brand building without capital investment. You get association with an established brand and potentially subsidized ingredients. 

Execute eight to ten signature items flawlessly rather than twenty mediocre options. Expand through franchising into tier-2 cities where rent is lower, competition less intense, and consumers hungry for new experiences.

Once Biscoff becomes genuinely mass-market, the novelty fades, so a good time for creating this (after assessing risks) is now!

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