The fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) market may have felt the heat of rising inflation and, resultantly, slowing demand for daily essentials like instant noodles, soaps and detergents, but the leading players have surely learnt the trick to stay afloat. If their recent performance to go by, the country’s top FMCG companies have managed to pull off a show that is highly contrasting to the performance of the overall market as Indian consumers continued to cut down on their purchases.
Take a look at these numbers.
During the July-September quarter, India’s FMCG market registered a little over 5 per cent value growth, while its volumes shrank by 5 per cent year-on-year – as per data from market analytics firm Nielsen.
While largest full range player Hindustan Unilever’s (HUL) net sales grew by 16 per cent y-o-y to Rs 14,872 crore and net profit surged 11.7 per cent to Rs 2,670 crore. Salt-to-cigarettes major ITC’s net revenue jumped 27 per cent to Rs 16,130 crore, while its net profit grew 21 per cent to Rs 4,466 crore.
Nestle India that rules the instant noodles, instant coffee and infant formula market, managed to grow its net sales by over 18 per cent to Rs 4,567 crore and its net profit by 8.3 per cent to Rs 668 crore. Mumbai-based Tata Consumer that runs the popular Starbucks coffee chain in India, saw its operating revenue and net profit surge by 11 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively during the September quarter.
Surely, they got somethings right which the other players failed to gauge. Here are the factors that analysts from leading brokerages like Motilal Oswal, Axis Securities, ICICI Securities and Novae, among others, think have worked for them:
Hindustan Unilever:
The company’s focus on growing its consumer base and protecting its business model played a crucial role in its superior performance, says CEO & MD Sanjiv Mehta.
2. According to ICICI Securities, its work in category development has borne fruits. During the quarter, its premium discretionary categories “outperformed” mass categories.
3. A sharp 14 per cent cut on its advertisement and promotional (A&P) expenses helped the company reduce pressure on EBITDA margin, which stood at 23 per cent – down by 174 basis points y-o-y. Though, HUL’s gross margin shrank by 600 bps.
ITC:
A stable tax and demand environment boosted ITC’s cigarettes business and volumes grew by a whopping 20 per cent. As a result, revenue from cigarettes business surged 23 per cent to Rs 5,920 crore in September quarter. Its continued efforts “to engage with policy makers to work on creating a framework of regulations and taxation policies in India,” analysts at Motilal Oswal noted.
Non-cigarettes FMCG business was boosted by staples and convenience foods that recorded growth mainly driven by biscuits (Sunfeast), atta (Aashirbad wheat flour) and instant noodles (Yipee). Discretionary and Out-of-Home categories witnessed strong traction while personal wash products performed well.
Increasing market and outlet coverage helped its performance further. In September, its market coverage was double of pre-COVID levels, while outlet covered was 30 per cent higher.
Nestle India:
Higher spend on A&P and increasing distribution, backed by festive demand, lifted Nestle’s performance across categories.
Growth has been strong in large metros and mega cities and continued to be robust in small towns and rural markets. Strengthening consumer engagement played a key role in urban markets, while growing penetration in rural market and adding new consumers helped it offset the slowdown in the hinterlands.
Milk products and nutrition (the largest business segment by revenue) performed well with good growth also seen in Milkmaid, while confectionary had support from on-ground initiatives and aggressive media campaigns. Maggi noodles drive good performance in Prepared Dishes (second largest segment) and Beverages saw good growth in coffee across, said ICICI Securities.
Tata Consumer:
Strong growth in Starbucks business: Revenue grew 57 per cent y-o-y led by normalisation of out-of-home consumption as 99 per cent of Starbucks stores are now open. Rolled out rolled out 25 new outlets taking the number of outlets to 300 in 36 cities.
Grown distribution to 1.4 million outlets and number of super stockiest was up by 20 per cent y-o-y.
Revenue from e-commerce surged 40 per cent to 9.2 per cent of its overall revenue. Sales through modern trade outlets grew 18 per cent.
Revenue from Tata Coffee business surged 41 per cent, while foods business in India recorded a 29 per cent jump.
Additionally, experts said that continued to formalisation of the sector – consumers moving from unbranded and/or regional brands to global and national brands owned by leading FMCG players, have also helped market leaders gain over smaller companies in the sector.
Also read: ITC Q2 results: Profit rises 24% to Rs 4,670.32 crore
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