Nature: Marico CEO sees sales picking up in H2

NEW DELHI: FMCG major Marico, which owns brands like Saffola and Parachute, expects revenue growth to come back in the second half of the fiscal and sluggish rural demand to gradually improve, its MD and CEO Saugata Gupta said.
The company has taken price corrections after the softening of inflation in the domestic market in the last two quarters, which has some effects on its revenue growth.However, it has helped it either gain or sustain market share and also increase penetration in some of its portfolio, he added.

In the next two quarters, revenue growth of the company would be in line with volume growth, Gupta said.
“Revenue growth is expected to move into positive territory in H2 as pricing deflation in the domestic business steadily tapers off. The company has taken price drops in its core brands as Saffola and Parachute,” Gupta added.
Last week, Marico reported a 17% increase in consolidated net profit for the September quarter. However, its revenue from operations marginally reduced to Rs 2,476 crore over the previous year.
Marico has also reported an underlying volume growth of 3% in the domestic business. On rural markets, he said it will gradually improve as sentiments are improving.
“One of the good things is that there was some uncertainty due to rainfall in August, and it improved significantly in September. Overall, we are also now going to tap a lower base. So, I see the revenue and volume situation both improving,” he said.
Over its food and premium personal care business, which now contributes Marico’s 20% of domestic revenue, Gupta said the “diversification journey has worked well” for the company.
“We expect this to continue… the two things we are working on are how to improve the gross margin of foods and secondly, in the premium personal care business… in the digital part of the business, how to keep on reducing the cash burn,” he added.agencies