Not Britannia or Adani Wilmar: Which is the largest FMCG company in India?

ITC is now the largest FMCG company in India as it recorded food sales of Rs 17,100 crore during the first nine months of 2023-24

Adani Wilmar, Britannia or Parle are no longer the biggest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies in India. One company has overtaken these firms in terms of domestic sales in the first nine months of 2023-24 till September.

According to data released by NielsenIQ, quoted in a report by The Economic Times (ET), ITC is now the largest FMCG company in India. It recorded food sales of Rs 17,100 crore during the period, followed by Rs 16,700 for Britannia, Rs 15,900 from Adani Wilmar and Rs 14,800 crore for Parle Products.

Mondelez and Hindustan Unilever recorded sales worth Rs 13,800 crore and Rs 12,200 crore, respectively.

Interestingly, last year, Adani Wilmar was leading the market, and ITC was in fourth place. Adani Wilmar was followed by Britannia and Parle.

How did ITC overtake Adani Wilmar?

According to the experts cited in the ET report, ITC has been able to overtake the Adani group company because of the sharp fall in edible oil prices, impacting Adani Wilmar's revenue. In September, the price of edible oil was less than $1,000 per tonne, half from its peak of $2,000 per tonne in April-May 2022.

Another reason ITC has become bigger is due to a jump in revenue from the Aashirvaad brand on the back of a rise in flour (atta) prices. Moreover, the company has been aggressive in launching new products. It has been introducing over 100 new products every year in the market for some years now.

It must be noted that the success of the food business for ITC is crucial since it has now announced its demerger with the cigarette business. Currently, its food business contributes 82 per cent of the non-cigarette FMCG sales.

In October, ITC reported a 6.02 per cent year-on-year rise in consolidated net profit in the July to September quarter of 2023-2024 (Q2FY24) to Rs 4,898.07 crore from Rs 4,619.77 crore, led by cigarettes, FMCG and hotels.