Operating in era of profound shifts, firms need resiliency: N Chandrasekaran

India, however, continues to experience credible economic growth, with its trajectory underpinned by strong demographic fundamentals and an accelerating digital public infrastructure, he added.

“We believe that to thrive in this current environment, an organisation needs to invest in resiliency and be nimble in reacting to situations,” he said.

Govt’s recent measures push up disposable income

The government’s recent measures, such as income-tax cuts, lower interest rates, and GST 2.0, have pushed up disposable incomes and also eased inflation, especially food inflation, while steady government investment had strengthened macroeconomic stability. This comes despite a high-volatility, low visibility environment where traditional forecasting models are being tested.

“This provides a robust canvas for the Indian consumer market, where we see an irreversible trend toward premiumisation, health and wellness, and digital-native consumption,” he said.

 Over the past years, Tata Consumer Products had diversified its portfolio and built new growth engines while strengthening its core categories, he said. The company had built future-ready capabilities across its business operations to enable the next phase of growth.

With the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) landscape evolving, execution across channels remained key and, during the year, Tata Consumer undertook a calibrated transformation of its go-to-market model in India to ensure sharper category focus and improve productivity across its distribution network, Chandrasekaran said.

 He added that alternate channels continue to outpace traditional retail, with new-age channels now contributing 41% of its India business. The growth has been led by the rapid expansion of quick commerce, but traditional retail remains the backbone of its go-to-market strategy and Tata Consumer continues to invest in the traditional retail channel, he said.

 “As part of our digital transformation journey, we are aiming to harness the full potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to augment our human workforce. Anchored by a robust AI Launchpad, we are looking to leverage the group’s rich consumer data as a connected knowledge layer, to build industry-specific AI solutions at scale. We are building capabilities to anticipate and serve evolving consumer needs,” he said.

This includes personalised shopping agents across emerging channels and ensuring readiness to engage seamlessly in new consumption ecosystems.

 “During the year, we have deployed AI to capture micro trends and compress product development cycles, commercialised multiple agentic models across functions, and put several more in advanced field testing,” Chandrasekaran said.