India’s Rural Markets

Home-grown FMCG major Dabur India is seeing "very good recovery" in rural markets and expects growth from these markets to come at par with the urban market in the next 3-4 quarters, CEO Mohit Malhotra said. As inflation is coming down with the cooling of commodity prices, a "slow volume recovery" is happening in those markets, which is narrowing the difference between the growth rate between rural and urban, he said. The recovery from the rural market is likely to continue despite a disruption in rain in some parts of the country, led by factors such as hike in MSP, good sowing of winter crops, and election season. Besides, India's unemployment rate has decreased in the rural areas and the consumer confidence index is also at an all-time high, almost reaching the pre-COVID level, he added. "There are definite very good recovery signs, which actually I am seeing. The festive season which is coming in, should augur very well for us going forward in the future. So I am very hopeful,"

Rural markets showed continued recovery during the quarter, with sales volumes rising 6.4% from 4% in the June-quarter, the market research firm NielsenIQ said.

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However, inflation eased in April and May, bringing some relief for consumer goods makers like Maggi instant noodles-seller Nestle India

Axis Bank on Monday said it will continue to grow 4-6 per cent faster than the industry in the medium to long term, helped by focus on rural and semi-urban markets, improving digital infrastructure and Citibank India retail business. Fiscal year 2023 was a breakout year for digital banking platform Axis 2.0 and the early leadership in building proprietary in-house digital native capabilities with full stack engineering, product and a design team of about 400 people have started yielding results, according to Axis Bank Managing Director and CEO Amitabh Chaudhry. "Given the powerful integrated platform we are building, we will continue to grow 400 to 600 bps faster than the industry in the medium to long term. "The significant strides we made during the year on our customer obsession journey, digital capabilities, Bharat Banking and successful acquisition of Citibank India Consumer Business further give us the confidence in sustaining this performance," he said in a message to ...

The consumption of consumer goods in rural India returned to growth after more than a year in the March quarter and is expected to grow for the rest of the year

Major FMCG companies feel the demand slump has bottomed out and there are green shoots of recovery in the rural markets, which has been under stress since the last few quarters. With abating commodity price pressures, firms such as HUL, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL), Dabur, Marico and Emami expect a gradual recovery in consumption going forward and are increasing upfront marketing investments in advertising and promotion (A&P). In the third quarter ended December 31, 2022, the companies reported growth in the urban markets. Modern trade channels and e-commerce also posted growth. But FMCG sales from traditional trade channels such as kirana stores were flat. Rural markets, which contribute around 35 per cent of FMCG industry sales, were still sluggish in Q3. However, the companies said they are witnessing signs of improvement on the back of encouraging winter crop sowing, indications of higher farm income and continued government stimulus. Home-grown firm Dabur said the ...

The Indian FMCG sector witnessed improvement in margins and slow growth in the December 2022 quarter but the rural markets continued to drag as retail inflation stayed at elevated levels, according to industry players. Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL) and Marico reported that although there is softness in demand, there has been an improvement partly due to the lingering effects of festive sales, while urban and premium categories maintained a steady pace during the October-December period. Godrej Consumer Products witnessed a "demand softness" in the domestic market and a slowdown post the festive season. "During the quarter, the Indian FMCG sector witnessed slow growth driven by poor rural consumption and a slowdown post the festive season," said the Godrej Group FMCG arm in its quarterly updates for Q3 FY23. Despite this, GCPL expects "double-digit sales growth backed by low single-digit volume growth". "The quality of our profits should see meaningful improvement, led by Gro

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Bizom pointed out that rural sales were impacted in September due to excessive rainfall in some areas and weak rainfall in some other regions, thereby affecting agri yields and household incomes

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Emami is also progressing with its focussed rural expansion drive under 'Project Khoj' initially targeting top four potential rural contributing states -- Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Andhra

Faced with "unprecedented" inflation in certain commodities like palm oil, crude based derivatives and tea, and ocean freight, HUL has hiked prices in the past three quarters

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A resilient rural market is leading the recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 second wave, with the industry's business reaching March 2021 levels, FMCG major HUL said on Thursday