Our aspiration is to get into double-digit revenue growth: Marico

livemint.com:

Mint spoke to Saugata Gupta, MD & CEO, Marico Ltd, on the company’s plans to improve top-line in the coming quarters—after successive price cuts in its Saffola edible oil portfolio impacted revenues. The company has also announced investments to ramp up direct distribution in a move to reach more rural markets. It is working on expanding its food distribution.

Edited excerpts: We saw some green shoots (in rural)...towards the end of the March quarter. It's a combination of a few factors—inflation is largely under control. I think the government continues to support direct benefit transfers, the monsoon predictions are pretty good.

So, a combination of all these factors gives us hope. For companies in mass categories, direct distribution will be a source of long-term competitive advantage. Now in the last five to seven years, due to the growth of organized trade, smaller brands have proliferated.

So we believe that in a post-GST world and with the formalization of the economy, and especially when we have a lot of challenger brands, the quality of distribution needs to improve. We were under-indexed in certain states and therefore, over the next three years, we want to move our direct distribution from 1 million to one and a half million. Our dependence on indirect distribution was more than other companies.

We have an outlay of ₹70 to ₹100 crore over a three-year period, which is largely self-funded. By the end of 2027, we will be in the top quartile in terms of our direct reach. This is largely for rural markets; in urban areas there is scope for expanding presence in channels such as chemists, beauty stores and food outlets.