Parle G ~ India’s First Biscuit!

Parle G – India’s First Biscuit

Parle-G: The name itself brings back our childhood memories. Dunking the perfect rectangle biscuits into a hot cup of milk or tea. A great companion with a hot cup of tea. Having the soggy piece before it crumbled back into the cup of milk. The humble rectangular biscuit loved by every Indian. Here’s a tale to tease your taste buds – the story of your favorite Parle G – “G mane Genius”

The year 1929 – Mohanlal Dayal of the Chauhans the founder of Parle company was influenced by the Swadeshi Movement, he sailed to Germany a few years ago to learn the art of confectionery-making. He came to India in 1929 with a candy machine of cost Rs 60,000. They started a small factory between Irla and Parla in Mumbai with 12 employees, including the family members themselves. They named the factory “Parle” after its place of birth.

The first product introduced by Parle was an orange candy which is still popular today. This was soon followed by toffees. During the British period, biscuits were luxury products and were majorly consumed by the upper-class people. However, after 10 years, Parle started the production of biscuits. During the 2nd world war in 1939, the first biscuit was produced by Parle, and they named it “Parle Gluco”.

Back then, biscuits were mostly imported expensive and meant for consumption for elite class people. Brands like United Biscuits, Huntly & Palmers, Britannia, and Glaxo were the prominent British brands that ruled the market.

Parle played smart and launched Parle Gluco at a very affordable price where the common people can buy these biscuits easily. Made in India for Indians, parle biscuits became popular in no time with the public and captured the market easily. It was also much in demand by the British Indian army during World War II and became a big brand.

1947 – Production of biscuits stopped in 1947 due to the shortage of wheat after India’s independence. The impact was so strong that they started the production of barley biscuits until the supplies of wheat were restored. In this period of time, other companies started taking advantage of this situation. As soon as this was realized by the company, they promised to start the productions soon.

1982 – In the year 1982 Parle changed the name to Parle G as the company doesn’t have the patent on Gluco word as other companies started taking advantage of Gluco or Glucose word.

Over the years Parle was unbeatable, consistent in taste.