Would be aiming for double digit volume growth; post elections it will be slight inflationary: Britannia's Berry

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Britannia's executive vice-chairman and managing director Varun Berry said commodity prices could increase post elections especially for wheat and sugar, its key raw materials but aims to clock a double-digit volume growth even at the cost of slight margin erosion.

«On the commodity situation, the crop seems to be fine as far as wheat is concerned and the government holding has been reasonably low and there will be government buying. Beyond the election, I think it will be slightly inflationary,» Berry told analysts. «Post election and post monsoon, I would think we would be aiming towards double digit volume growth.»

The Nusli Wadia-controlled company has also undertaken a route to market project to multiply adjacent businesses while continue to build its core biscuits portfolio. As part of its new initiative, the company will focus more on aligning its service towards high potential retail outlets with multiple salesmen, building AI enabled predictive ordering and upgrading the salesforce automation. The pilot is planned for the second half of the current fiscal and will be completed in a year.

The maker of Good Day said it is willing to take a short term hit on margins due of all the projects and efforts to make the company future fit.

«The way we look at it is that this year is a year of topline growth. And if it means taking a short term hit on margins because of all the projects, because of all that we are doing, we will be willing to do that, but it's not going to be dramatically different from where we