ITC non-tobacco FMCG biz valued at over 18kcr - The Times of India
July 28, 2012
The home-grown brands of ITC in the non-tobacco FMCG business could be valued at over Rs 18,000 crore, feels chairman of the FMCG-to-hospitality major Y C Deveshwar. He was addressing the shareholders at 101st the annual general meeting of the company here. ITC has a number of home-grown brands across new FMCG categories. These are Aashirvaad, Sunfeast, Bingo!, Yippee! in foods, Fiama Di Wills, Vivel, Superia in personal care products and Wills Lifestyle, John Players in the lifestyle category. Most of the brands have been developed in last 7-8 years.
"The new FMCG business though making losses but it has created vital brands. The business itself has a turnover of Rs 5,500 so the valuation should not be less than Rs 18,000 crore. This should be the minimum but I feel it should be more. We want to make ITC a powerhouse of Indian brands and it should be recognized as Indian Trademark Corporation," he added. Deveshwar feels that strong domestic brands create much larger value since they create, capture and retain value within country. "There are so many foreign brands in our daily life. This means a lot of money is going abroad as licensing fee. So we need to develop big home grown brands."
According to ITC chairman, it is the aspiration of the company to be the No.1 FMCG player in the country in near future. He pointed out that the segment revenues of the new FMCG businesses are growing at a much faster clip than ITC's traditional business.
"The topline from this segment is expected to triple over the next five to seven years to a level of Rs 15,000 crore," he added. Incidentally, non-cigarette FMCG segment registered a higher revenue growth of 23% in the first quarter compared to an overall growth of 15.3%.
Deveshwar indicated that health and well-being along with dairy could be possible areas. "Our company is using R&D capabilities to deliver future products aimed at nutrition, health and well-being. We are likely to enter into dairy space anytime. The company is investing Rs 400-500 crore in dairy," he added.
Recovery pill for India Inc: ITC chairman Y C Deveshwar has urged India Inc to prepone its investment plans in order to come out of economic slowdown. "We have so far invested Rs 2,700 crore this year. We need to raise the pace of investment in Indian economy," he added. ITC is planning to invest Rs 25,000 crore in next 5-7 years in 40 projects.
