With country remains in lockdown, Parle is facing a huge crunch in staff and demands for its product is surging. Parle is gearing up for a major shift in the retail landscape and technology will play a big role in its factories.

Mayanak Shah, Sr Category Head, Parle Products said “When it’s work from home, adding your kids are also home, the consumption of food goes up. Owing to this, we have seen at least 40-50 % increase in demand in the basic items and products”.

Shah feels some bit of this demand could be a result of hoarding for essential goods. But the bigger challenge for the company is meeting the demands with reduced factory staff.

While Parle had enabled automation at production and manufacturing levels, it so far does not use automation at loading and unloading levels. “That could be the next area to work on,” Shah said.

“Technology clubbed with the business process will bring this change. We will see the emergence of e-commerce where people will prefer to order online than going to the retailers,” Shah said.

Parle made a sizable investment in the last few years in ERPs and process automation. But now it is looking at scaling IT investments.