Consumer goods companies of repute which sell packaged foods, toiletries, and everyday household items have an expectation to gain market share from regional and local brands over the next few quarters, stated an ET report. Reports indicate that these FMCG firms are reducing their product prices and increasing investment in marketing
Hindustan Unilever, Parle Products, Marico and Adani Wilmar have been facing the heat of stiff competition from regional and small unorganised players who are dominating the market through their lower price offerings.
In the last six to nine months, in categories where commodity prices have cooled, most of the companies have reduced product prices or increased the weight of the packs. They have also expanded their advertising and promotion activities.
In the past quarter, Parle Products experienced 8-10 percent gain in sales volume and 4-5 percent in value. This trend was witnessed in January as well, vice president of Parle Products, Mayank Shah was quoted.
Hindustan Unilever expects the pricing correction and increase in pack weight in detergent bars to help it gain it an upper hand over the local players. Consumer packaged goods company Marico stated the volume growth of Parachute hair oil improved sequentially as loose-to-branded conversion regained pace, highlighted the report.
Adani Wilmar mentioned that the growth of the branded oil segment doubled this year compared to 2023. Branded sales (arranging sales of products from different brands in a retail store) are growing at 16 percent compared with 8 percent in FY23.
Ritesh Tiwari, chief financial officer, HUL, in its last quarter earnings call highlighted that the company added grammage (measurement of paper weight), increased trade promotions in categories like laundry and skin cleansing and made price corrections. Tiwari went on to state that they invested an additional Rs 400 crore on advertising and promotion last quarter.
Read More: Marico records 11.82 percent spike (YoY) on advertisements and sales promotion