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English Biscuit Manufacturers makes and sells Peek Freans-brand biscuits, cookies, and cakes to shoppers across Pakistan and abroad.
English Biscuit Manufacturers is Pakistan's biggest biscuit maker, and its products show up in almost every corner shop, supermarket, and kitchen cupboard in the country. It sells under the Peek Freans name — the brand most Pakistanis actually call the biscuits — and its range runs from plain glucose biscuits and Marie to cream-filled cookies and cakes. If you have ever dunked a biscuit in chai in Pakistan, there is a good chance it was one of theirs.
The business is simple at its core: it buys flour, sugar, oil, and flavorings, bakes them into packaged snacks at large factories, and ships them out through a vast distribution network to shops big and small. The magic is in that distribution. Reaching hundreds of thousands of tiny retailers, many in far-off towns and villages, is expensive and hard to copy, and it is a big reason the company has held its lead for decades. Its closest rival is the listed biscuit maker Continental Biscuits — better known for its TUC and Soho brands — and it also fights for shelf space against imported cookies and cheaper local brands. One thing worth knowing: the name is a little tangled. The company was long known as Peek Freans Pakistan, a nod to the British biscuit firm whose brand it licensed. Over time it took fuller ownership of the brand and renamed itself English Biscuit Manufacturers, while keeping the Peek Freans name on the packets shoppers recognize. That brand heritage is useful — it sounds a bit premium and reassuring — but the real asset today is the network of shops and the everyday habit of buying the same biscuit you grew up with.
The company is privately held, so it does not publish the kind of detailed financial reports a listed firm would. It is owned by the prominent Pakistani business family behind the conglomerate Artal — more precisely, the group usually called Artal Holdings — and it keeps reinvesting in factories and new product lines rather than chasing quick wins. For a snack maker, the risks are honest and familiar: flour and sugar prices swing, competition keeps nipping at its heels, and shoppers can always trade down to a cheaper biscuit when money is tight. But a trusted brand plus a distribution machine that reaches nearly every shop in the country is a durable combination, and it is why Peek Freans has stayed on top of the Pakistani biscuit aisle for so long.
Saved answer · last researched 15 Nov 2026