FMCG sector to keep growing, but at a slower pace: Nestle India chief

CHENNAI: Nestle India expects the fast-moving consumer goods market to continue growing this year because the “consumption story in India” is more positive than elsewhere, but not as fast as expected before as the economy is facing a slowdown, its chairman said.

“Unlike some other sectors such as auto, we don’t see the FMCG sector going into the negative territory. It will still grow, may be not in double digits but in high single digits,” Suresh Narayanan said on Monday.

Narayanan said while the FMCG sector was growing at 16-17% in the third quarter of 2018, it had slowed down to 10% now, and that growth expectations for the year would be one-to-two percentage points lower than the original targets.

“Urban growth rates are not what they were before and double digit growth will be hard to achieve,” he said. “There will be periods of slow growth but the consumption story in India is relatively more positive compared to many other countries.”

Last month, market research firm Nielsen revised its growth forecast for the FMCG sector to 9-10% in 2019 from its previous outlook of 11-12%, citing a sharp rural slowdown as well as weak demand across all food and non-food categories from salty snacks and biscuits to soaps and packaged tea.

Rural markets contribute 20-25% to the sales of the local unit of the Swiss food and drink processing conglomerate. The maker of Maggi noodles and Nescafe had delivered 10.5% volume growth in its second quarter ended June 30.

Narayanan said there were still market opportunities to tap for the company.

“Penetration levels of categories we are in are relatively lower. We still have runway for growth and we are also looking at accelerating our rural footprint,” he said. “We are innovating at five times the pace than in the past and with increasing urbanisation, we are stepping up the power of innovation.”

If the industry gets its operational efficiencies on track and combined with renovation and innovation, it will be able to counter the economic slowdown, Narayanan said. “We are fairly confident we will be able to bring in innovation-led volume growth. With relevant focus on advertising and marketing in difficult times, we believe some of our brands can be strengthened.”

Narayanan was speaking at the India relaunch of health drink Milo, a coco-malt beverage that is one of its biggest brands globally. “It is purely coincidental that this is happening in an environment where GSK Consumer and Unilever are merging. The tenor of our launch might have been different had we got Horlicks,” he said.

GSK Consumer, which owns malt beverage Horlicks, was acquired by Unilever in December last year. While Nestle was also rumoured to be in the race for the rival, it never admitted that on record.

Nestle’s ecommerce business has trebled over the past two years and now contributes 1.5% to the company’s overall business, Narayanan said. “While ecommerce in food retailing is not as salient as some other categories, it is still growing. We will continue to introduce products and packs specifically for ecommerce,” he said.

Nestle will have to selectively increase prices if commodity prices, such as of milk and wheat, continue to rise, Narayanan said.