I think the FMCG industry is one where it is very hard to disrupt the existing players. HUL, P&G, ITC, Britannia have been leaders in their respective segments. I have come across ITC folks and their inability to break into the soap/shampoo segment inspite of having a very successful presence in a lot of other segments. The newer competitor emerging and causing disruption is Patanjali Yogapeeth. There is a clear acceptability of products mainly due to its association with Baba Ramdev.
I have seen a lot of my friends and family members trying, using and recommending Patanjali’s products. Some of the products that I think have been more successful are Wheat Atta (priced nearly 10% lower than when compared to Ashirwad ) and Coconut oil again lower priced compared to Parachute. I wanted to have an opinion if other folks on this forum have seen something similar and what impact do you see it making to established FMCG players. I hav personally tried Biscuits, Atta and Ghee and found them good.
Admin: I was not really sure where such posts should go and hence keeping it in “New Content Category”
No this is not traded in public and I do not know of any plans of it going to public. I only wanted to assess how other folks on the forum think about it.
I agree Suraj. I have seen them run out of stuff quite regularly and of-course distribution, supply chain management, scaling up would be issues in the beginning. What is most impressive is the way they have broken branding moats which I think is the most difficult part in FMCG game.
Very clearly Patanjali is having a major impact on Dabur. It is on the verge of disloging Dabur from top spot on Chyawanprash and Honey. Patanjali honey is nearly 40% cheaper compared to Dabur.I think Marico will be the next to be impacted due to coconut oil. If one remembers last time when HUL’s Nihar disrupted Marico dominance in Coconut oil category it ended up buying Bihar from HUL. I think there will be a lot more disruptive products from Patanjali with the extended network Reliance, Big Bazaar etc are all starting to have Patanjali in their shelves.
Patanjali products are good as per the experience of majority of the users I have interacted with. Supply is the concern. Now with Patanjali tied up with future group to sell their FMCG products, I think they will give tough cometition to the existing FMCG players. Also Patanjali do not need to spend on any brand ambassador as Baba Ramdev is their key brand ambassador.
Today, I watched Baba on ET now talking really big. As per him, they are number one in Honey(beating Dabur now) and will become number one in Chyavanprash as well when their new capacity comes up(Again Dabur is the leader here).
If he gets what he is looking forward to, we have a big FMCG powerhouse in making. Brand recall is definitely great…even product quality is good.
The way Patanjali going about its business of adding capacities and products, they are operating like a “true blue” business.As most of the boarders have written, their products are good and cheaper by around 25% in most of the categories. Now with their tie up with Big Bazar, they are getting ready made distribution network. I feel they have potential to hurt growth rates of most of the FMCG companies.
Patanjali is now becoming home brand in most of my friends and family members. Their products are very good (better than these fmcg) and cheap also. They are clearly disrupting the FMCG space and their healthy products like atta biscuts and other innovative products which include shampoo, soaps, face wash, aloe vera gel are growing very rapidly.
A question to boarders when you mean disruptive what is really the tick factor for people to use patanjali products? Is it faith of a guru (aka branding which could also present keyman risk), the price points or the target positioning (health conscious, swadeshi products?)
Could someone throwup statistics of similar products in the past of how they have performed?
Cz disruptive is a very vague word it could be momentum driven or it could really turn the tide away from existing norms…
Btw the only point where i do not see patanjali even scoring heads up is Noodles… India has grown up with Maggi and will continue to do so… Maybe i could say the patanjali effect on youth’s maggi consumption is inelastic
I think competition is nothing new in the FMCG industry. of course patanjali will have some impact. but i don’t think they will be able to disrupt. i was reading saurabh mukerjea’s book in which he had written sanjoy bhattacharya’s interview. sanjoy sold off gsk consumer when cadbury entered india, fearing it will eat up horlicks market share and he regrets selling it ( in 1990)
note: i hold gsk consumer and dabur from very low levels.
Good products and no frills stores. Stores sell only patanjali products, sometimes the merchandise is taken out directly out of the cartons. Certainly a big savings on overheads. The products may be new but the brand - Baba Ramdev, is 20 yrs old. Critical mass may have been achieved.
