GCPL Expects Double-Digit Volume Growth; To Focus On Category Development And Innovation

Godrej Consumer Products Ltd will leverage a more global approach to product innovation and brand equity for its various items as it seeks double-digit volume growth over the next few years, according to its executive chairperson Nishaba Godrej.

Such an approach would enable the FMCG firm to "leverage the best insights and innovation across the globe quickly and seamlessly", she said while addressing shareholders in the company's annual report for 2021-22.

The leadership team of the Godrej group FMCG led by managing director and CEO Sudhir Sitapati has "crafted very clear plans for your business to achieve our ambition of double-digit volume growth over the next few years", she wrote.

"Our strategy is to now leverage a more global approach to product innovation and brand equity for our household insecticides, hair colour and air care categories. This will enable us to leverage the best insights and innovation across the globe quickly and seamlessly," Godrej said.

Stressing that the early results are very encouraging, Godrej said, "Categories like soaps in India and hair fashion in Africa will continue to be managed locally. We will focus on household insecticides and the growth of the Indonesia business, and margins and governance will be the focus in Africa."

In the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukrainian war, China disruptions and "the Great Resignation" have posed several new challenges for the GCPL team, she said.

"We, however, remain optimistic. There is a change underway at your company, which I believe will serve us well, both in the short and longer-term," she added.

Over the next few years, GCPL will use digital technology and automation to reimagine and radically simplify.

"The aim is to become more agile, lean and empowered, while also enabling greater cost efficiencies, which will, in turn, create the fuel needed for growth," she added.

GCPL managing director Sudhir Sitapati said the company's game plan is simply to focus on category development of an existing portfolio, "driven by product innovation, relevance building, and access and marketing investments, and funded by a digitally enabled simplification".

The Godrej group's FMCG arm, which has the vision to be the "leading emerging markets-focused multi-local player, presently gets 80 per cent of revenue from four countries -- India, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Bangladesh.

"Together, these countries comprise just below a third of the world's population and have consistently grown at twice the GDP of the world; so these may be low-income countries, but they are growing very fast," he added.

The company has centred its growth strategy around emerging markets and the emergent consuming class in them.

"As incomes rise, purchasing power improves and these markets mature; new distribution systems and the digital economy are enabling greater reach. To be able to leverage this, we are ramping up our go-to-market and digital strategies and reach to go deeper and improve penetration," said GCPL.

Sitapati, who joined GCPL last year, said, "At the heart of our success, today lies existing category penetration-led volume growth. I know it will not be easy to do this consistently, but I would measure medium-term success as achieving something in the vicinity of double-digit volume growth."

He further said, "We have a slew of re-launches in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2022-23, which we believe will dramatically build the relevance of our categories."

GCPL said it is also working on the democratisation of its offering, by making products available at accessible price points, with Sitapati asserting that "as our cost to serve reduces, it will give us significant fuel for growth and digital transformation".