Godrej Consumer Products eyes 5% e-commerce revenues in 3-4 years
Homegrown FMCG firm Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) is bullish on the prospects of e-commerce and is expecting 5% of its revenues to come from this channel in the next three to four years. GCPL CEO, India and SAARC, Sunil Kataria, said, "We have realized that it cannot happen with e-commerce being part of customer channel. It has to be a separate business in itself."
GCPL shifting e-commerce as separate unit
E-commerce is estimated to account for just 1% of the FMCG space at present in the country, but Kataria expects it to pick up in the coming years. GCPL from September 1 is shifting e-commerce as a separate P&L unit, with its own innovation team, new product development pipeline and own marketing and digital team, the top executive said.
GCPL to manage e-commerce through green channel
"We would like to manage it through a green channel where we focus on not only our core products going through e-commerce in a much more faster way but also enabling a lot of agile decision making which happens within the e-commerce team," Kataria said.
Company expecting double-digit growth this fiscal
GCPL, the maker of Cinthol, GoodKnight, and Hit, among others, is also expecting double-digit growth this financial year led by strong volume growth and new launches. "For the past seven to eight years, roughly one-third of our growth has been coming from new-product-developments. We see that again as being a critical driver of the growth in coming years starting from this year," said Kataria.
Godrej Consumer Products to roll out 5 innovations
GCPL is planning to roll out around five innovations across categories in the first half of FY19, followed by another three or four in the second half, according to CEO Kataria. The top executive further said that there has been a revival in consumption post-demonetization and GST implementation, adding that rural is growing at a faster clip than urban.
GCPL to take rural revenue share to 35-36% by FY22
The rural market accounts for around 30% of GCPL revenue currently. Kataria said, "By FY22... we would like to take it to 35-36%." Kataria expects premiumization to pick up across categories in both urban and rural, that took a hit due to demonetization and GST.
