ITC Ltd on Tuesday said that its FMCG portfolio of over 25 brands represents an annual consumer spend of approximately Rs 29,000 crore and reach of over 230 million households in India. The conglomerate announced its annual report on Tuesday generating a revenue of Rs 19,000 crore in the financial year 2022-23. ITC Ltd said that it is focused on scaling up its FMCG business anchored on strong growth platforms and future ready portfolio, “powered by purpose-led brands, world-class quality, deep consumer insights, cutting-edge innovation and an agile, resilient and efficient supply chain”. It said that the company grew ahead of the industry in both urban and rural markets and launched 90 new products in FY23.
“Notwithstanding the challenging conditions prevailing during the year, ITC’s FMCG businesses grew ahead of the industry in both urban and rural markets driven by enhanced distribution footprint, superior last mile execution, deep consumer insights, purposeful innovation and portfolio premiumisation,” it said in the regulatory filing.
It further stated that the company’s FMCG businesses continue to make strategic investments in building categories for the future. ITC is also pursuing ‘value accretive’ acquisition, joint venture and collaboration opportunities towards accelerating growth and value creation, it added. The conglomerate added that its ITC Next strategy focuses on a future-ready portfolio, premiumisation, innovation, digital adoption, and a greater market penetration.
ITC also stated that the FMCG business continued to expand its export footprint with a reach now spanning over 60 countries. “ITC also continues to explore strategic opportunities in proximal markets as a potential vector of growth going forward. The PLI scheme has provided further fillip to ITC’s exports across biscuits & cakes, snacks, dairy and ready-to-eat categories,” it said.
ITC’s expansive presence
Elaborating on its multi-channel distribution network, ITC said that its distribution network, which facilitates availability of its products in nearly seven million retail outlets of which more than one-third are serviced directly, was further strengthened during the year. “Market coverage was stepped up to appx. 2x of pre-pandemic levels,” it said.
During the financial year, while urban markets continued to witness channel shift with the growth of modern trade and e-commerce, ITC continued to deploy market-specific interventions to enhance presence in rural markets. “Over the last five years, market and outlet coverage have grown 3.5x and 1.5x respectively while the network of stockists has expanded to 8.3x during the same period,” it said. ‘ITC e-store’, ITC’s exclusive D2C platform, is now operational in 24,000+ pin codes and it has also partnered with ONDC.