Four ITC brands cross Rs 1,000 cr revenue mark

Aashirvaad, Sunfeast, Classmate and Bingo! by ITC crossed the Rs 1,000-crore revenue mark in the last fiscal, while many of its other brands grossed more than Rs 500 crore, the company said in its annual report.

All of ITC’s brands in the last fiscal clocked revenue of Rs 11,000 crore. ITC’s brands range across categories such as food, stationery and personal care products. The food and other business division reported 11% rise in gross revenue in the previous fiscal at Rs 9,038 crore.

Its FMCG business contributes to 16.6% of the company’s total revenue. In FY15, the FMCG and other businesses saw profit go up by 56% to Rs 34.08 crore.

The annual report of the company said: “While input cost inflation remained moderate during the year, the high intensity of consumer promos and trade schemes resorted to by industry players in a bid to garner volumes exerted pressure on margins. Your company’s branded packaged foods businesses mitigated such margin pressure by focusing on product mix enrichment, value engineering initiatives, dynamic sourcing based on close monitoring of market trends, structural interventions in manufacturing technology and supply chain optimisation.”

In the previous year, ITC acquired Shower to Shower and Savlon from Johnson & Johnson. The company said in the report that it plans to leverage these assets and strengthen its position in the personal care space by expanding its existing product portfolio and gaining access to new consumer segments and markets.

The Kolkata-headquarterd conglomerate also entered into the juice market last fiscal and launched seven variants in the B- Natural brand in January.

ITC aims to become the number one FMCG company and wishes to see its revenue go up to Rs 1,00,000 crore by 2030 from the new FMCG businesses.

On the tobacco front, a recent government notification which was originally proposed to be effective from April 1 mandates that health warning graphics should cover 85% of the packet compared to the current requirement of 40% on one side of the pack. The company said in the report that this would cause insufficient space for the company’s distinctive trademark and pack design.

ITC Limited