During its inaugural analyst meeting for listed companies, Procter & Gamble (P&G) highlighted India as a promising growth market and expressed confidence in achieving margin-driven growth in the medium term. The company identified distribution expansion, premiumisation, and the introduction of new products as pivotal factors driving this growth. Despite being a substantial player, P&G’s focus on India appeared to have diminished over the past decade due to its prioritisation of the US market. While P&G has displayed aggressiveness at various points in the last 20 years, the meeting did not indicate a renewed commitment to heightened aggression, at least as yet.
India contributes 2% of P&G’s global revenue although is among its top-10 markets. Management is optimistic on the India opportunity, with ambition to grow double-digits going forward. It recently announced a Rs 20 billion investment in a new facility which will be used as an export hub for healthcare portfolio.
Volume growth is seeing a recovery after weak trends in last few years. Large opportunity in sanitary pads given limited per-capita spends and low rural penetration. Management aims for double-digit revenue growth along with gradual margins recovery, led by category growth and premiumisation through customer education and NPDs. Gillette is a leader in shaving with the market share currently at highest-ever level. It aims to drive growth across price points, led by category development. Renewed growth ambitions through initiatives such as distribution expansion, new categories etc. needs to be monitored given P&G’s history of aggressive price wars in India, although at this stage, this does not seem to be the case.