Chennai, NFAPost: Emerging markets company Godrej Consumer Products has said that it witnessed strong momentum in the Hygiene category in India in the first quarter of the current financial year. The company said, however, it witnessed muted demand in Hair Colour and Air Freshener, which were temporarily impacted by the lockdown.
The company expects close to mid single digit, volume driven sales growth in the quarter.
Godrej Consumer Products said that the first quarter of the current financial year was an unprecendented period due to the spread of coronavirus pandemic across the globe, impacting all the geographies of its operations in the early part of the quarter.
The company said it has been working on a safety first principle, ensuring that its employees and business partners are safe and are taking all necessary precautions to control the spread of coronavirus.
“While we did see impact of lockdown in the early part of the quarter, we displayed strong agility in ramping up the production and resolving logistics challenges. We also leveraged technology, strong relationships with our channel partners and were agile with feet on ground to meet the end consumer demand. The demand trends were mixed for the categories and geographies of our operations,” it said in a Quarterly Update to the BSE.
In GAUM (Godrej Africa, USA, Middle East), the company expects sales decline in early twenties, in constant currency terms. Amidst disruptions caused by coronavirus, most of the key countries were in standstill mode in April and early May resulting in sales loss.
“We have seen strong recovery from mid May and June across most of our markets of operations. Within the ‘others’ geographies, the performance in Latin America is expected to be steady in constant currency terms. However, in INR terms we expect the performance to be weak,” the company said.
Performance in SAARC countries continues to be steady. At consolidated level, the company expects absolute sales to be marginally lower compared to the base quarter in INR terms.
As part of the 123-year young Godrej Group, Godrej Consumer Products has been growing fast. Today, the Group enjoys the patronage of 1.15 billion consumers globally, across different businesses.
In line with its 3 by 3 approach to international expansion at Godrej Consumer Products, the company has been building a presence in 3 emerging markets (Asia, Africa, Latin America) across 3 categories (home care, personal wash, hair care). It ranks among the largest household insecticide and hair care players in emerging markets. In household insecticides, the company is the leader in India, the second largest player in Indonesia, and is expanding its footprint in Africa.
The company is the leader in serving the hair care needs of women of African descent, the number one player in hair colour in India and Sub-Saharan Africa, and among the leading players in Latin America. The company ranks number two in soaps in India, and is the number one player in air fresheners and wet tissues in Indonesia.
The company’s shares were trading at Rs 693.20, down 2.04% from the previous close, on Tuesday afternoon.