Kellog’s wants Tiger frozen

There is a new twist in the Tiger’s tale. It has now emerged as the US cereal company Kellog’s is trying to block Britannia from using the Tiger logo for products other than biscuits.

This is the second dispute over the Tiger brand for Britannia. The first dispute was with its French partner Danone where its French partner has used the Tiger brand of Britannia for marketing in various products along with biscuits in some Asian markets. Kellog’s objection is because of its own logo has Tony the Tiger in its breakfast cereal. Kellog’s is using this logo since 1952. Kellog’s had sued Exxon a decade ago for using the Tiger figure to sell food.

Kellog’s main objection is that Britannia should not use the Tiger brand in the categories where Kellog’s has presence. So it may affect the future plans of Britannia as it has planned to extend its Tiger Brand to various categories after a good success in biscuits. Britannia is facing a stiff competition in its biscuit market. ITC is competing with its brand Sunfeast. Britannia is the only growing and profitable business for the Wadia group. So the company will put all its effort to save its key brand Tiger.

The Tiger brand of biscuits account for 25 to 30% of the revenue for the companies sales annually (Rs. 1800 Crore). This brand was developed in late 90s as a rival product to Parle-G and it became a good success for the company. Now the company wants to extend this brand to various other food categories due to its popularity. Britannia has appointed IPR (Intellectual Property Right) Committee to solve the issue of its brand.