Q & A with CEO

1. How do you think was the year 2023-24 and what were the key highlights of the year?

Mohit Malhotra (MM): Fiscal 2023-24 saw a slowdown in consumption led by rural demand which was impacted by high food inflation and erratic rainfall. In addition, there was an impact of seasonal factors such as unseasonal rains, weak summer and delayed winter. This had an impact on our summer-centric beverage business and some parts of our healthcare portfolio. In spite of the challenging conditions, Dabur performed well with 7.6% growth in our consolidated revenue. We also saw improvement in market shares across 95% of our portfolio. Key highlights of the year were:

• International Business reported growth of 16.4% in CC terms
• Gross margins showed an improvement of 240 bps
• Operating margin expanded by 60 bps to 19.4%
• HPC business performed well with double-digit growth in oral care and home care
• Some of our new products, like Red Bae gel toothpaste, Dabur Cool King, Dabur Baby Care range, Dabur Vedic Tea and Odomos Liquid Vapouriser received a good response and enabled entry into large and promising adjacent categories
• Badshah business which was acquired in January 2023, performed well with growth of 21% led by rejuvenation of the brand and portfolio, marketing investment and distribution enhancement.

2. What is your assessment of consumer demand especially in rural markets?

MM: While demand trends were weak during the year some green shoots are visible indicating a gradual recovery. This is validated by improvement in volume growth in key categories as compared to the previous year. Continued focus of the current government on infrastructure development , support to rural incomes and expectation of a normal monsoon bode well for a rural recovery. We are optimistic that rural consumption will improve during the current year, although this may be more visible in the second half of the year.

3. Has your business strategy undergone any change keeping in view the dynamics of FMCG market?

MM: The Company’s strategy is focused on growing its Power Brands, expanding the Total Addressable Market (TAM) by extending our brands in adjacent spaces where we have a right to win, driving innovation, expanding our distribution network and implementing channel-focused strategies. We saw strong growth in organized channels viz modern trade and ecommerce.In order to capture the opportunities in these channels, we have put in place the right skills, capability and investment due to which our business is seeing a strong uptrend. There has also been the emergence of Quick Commerce as a robust channel which has seen exponential growth. We foresee Q-Commerce to become more significant going forward and are putting in place strategies to capture the opportunities thrown up by this channel.