Demonetisation made our shampoo, soaps, biscuits unavailable at stores: ITC

The ITC on Friday said that the government's demonetisation drive had led to disruptions in the wholesale trade channels for the company's FMCG products.

"In the recent past, there had been disturbances in the wholesale channels due to demonetisation which led to unavailability of ITC's FMCG products in many stores", CEO of the company Sanjiv Puri said while replying to shareholders' at the AGM here.

The shareholders expressed grievances that ITC's FMCG products were difficult to locate at super stores. The company manufactures a plethora of FMCG (non-cigarette) ranging from shampoo, soaps, biscuits, perfumes, packaged foods and others.

Puri, echoing Chairman Y C Deveshwar, said that there were many practical difficulties in getting store space which would go away once the segment assumed enough scale.

Expressing concern over the taxation on cigarettes, Puri said "It is a major cause for worry".

There had been 202 per cent rise in tax which had led to smuggling of cigarettes and shift towards other forms of tobacco consumption.

Regarding the hotels business, he said that the industry was poised for a boom and many property were currently under construction.

ITC recently commissioned the integrated consumer goods manufacturing facility at Guwahati.