P&G Hygiene sees urban stress persisting and rural demand rebound

P&G Hygiene and Health Care highlights healthy rural recovery and strong economic indicators but remains cautious due to weak urban demand and global uncertainties

Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care (PGHHC) on Thursday said that urban India has been facing financial challenges and that the company continued to hold a cautiously optimistic outlook for the future.

 

At its investor day, the company said rural demand was showing signs of healthy recovery, thanks to healthier monsoons and rural wages picking up, and at this point, urban demand was not following the same trend.

 

“We continue to hold a cautiously optimistic outlook for the future. With steady government and private investment, and economic indicators of tax collections and foreign reserves continuing to be healthy, there surely are reasons to be optimistic. But one must keep an eye on evolving global trade policies, which will have an impact on inflation and demand,” Mrinalini Srinivasan, chief financial officer, PGHHC, told investors on its conference call.

 

She said that Indian economy continued to grow stronger than global peers but it was important to acknowledge the sharp slowdown versus the past three-year average at the estimated 6.5 per cent growth and added that India will still grow well within the past 10 years trend.

 

Talking about the feminine care category in the country, V Kumar, managing director and chief executive officer (MD&CEO) at P&G India, told investors that the category has grown 100 times over the last 30 years.

 

“Our history of innovation has been one of the strongest in recent times. We remain invested in developing innovation in each of our categories and across the portfolio to attract new users and help them more effectively tackle current and new jobs to be done,” Kumar said. 

 

He added, “The strategic need to keep investing in superiority, coupled with the ongoing need to drive balanced top and bottom line growth, including margin expansion, underscores the crucial importance of ongoing productivity.”

 

Kumar also said that the company leveraged data across all channels to create an assortment that ensured the right portfolio of its products were available at the right stores.

 

“We leverage insights based on trends, neighbourhood analytics as well as consumer preferences, and purchase studies to curate a delightful experience for consumers, shoppers, and retailers alike. With supply 3.0, we continue to focus on the next phase of our supply chain optimisation, seamlessly integrating the flow from suppliers to customers, and extending all the way to retailers’ shelves,” Kumar said.

 

Gillette India, which is part of P&G India, held a separate conference call. Talking about men’s changing beard trends, Srividya Srinivasan, chief financial officer (CFO) of Gillette India, said that the brand Gillette had grown in double digits as well and continued to lead the market share in the blades and razors category. “In this year, we have further strengthened our leadership. We know that consumer preferences are ever-evolving, not just at a consolidated level, but even at an individual consumer level, we are seeing the trend becoming more personalised,” Srinivasan said.