Here's what flew off store shelves and what didn't during lockdown

The months of April and May witnessed a change in product purchases, as the country was under a two-month lockdown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. While some people were busy baking fresh loaves of banana bread and whipping up Dalgona coffee, the core constitutes of these Instagram trends - bread, cheese, coffee powder and jams - were bought in large quantities.

Undoubtedly, sanitisers and germ-fighting soaps topped the grocery lists but another product that also found a place in shopping carts were household insecticides - large quantities of it.

According to some shop owners, customers bought only important items, resisting their impulsive purchasing habits. The company executives in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector said that there were certain unusual trends in demand in certain product categories.

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Bengaluru-based Britannia Industries, who produce fruity cakes witnessed a decline in sales, according to a report by Indian Express. An otherwise school snack box/ tiffin favourite, the slump can be attributed to the closing down of schools. On the other hand, staples such as bread, cheese and rusk skyrocketed.

India's largest FMCG company, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), reported an increase of Kissan jams purchases, in addition to sauces and ketchup in the April-June quarter. The germ resitant handwashes and sanitisers by Lifebuoy also saw a surge in sales. The locust attack, coronavirus germs and measures to ward off mosquito infections led to an increased purchased of Godrej Consumer Products Ltd's household insecticides.

Nestle products - instant noodles and coffee - were a big hit for many during the lockdown. Maggi noodles surged 25 percent on charts, and coffee has been doing well in addition to milk and nutrition products, company executives said.

Britannia’s Managing Director Varun Berry said during earnings call that bread and rusk grew "very aggressively even faster than biscuits." Suggesting that the growth in sales of bread was on account of it replacing meals for those who were at home, Berry said: “…I think home consumption for bread is almost 100 percent, home consumption for rusk will be slightly higher than what it is for biscuits”.

“Jams, ketchup they are growing at a very robust pace and it is natural – people are cocooned at their homes. These categories with kids all locked up in homes, there will be demand for these products. It is very natural that there will be a big burst in demand for these products,” HUL’s chairman and managing director, Sanjiv Mehta, told analysts during a post-earnings conference call.