ITC's food business crosses Rs 10,000 cr sales milestone in FY20, Rs 600 cr short of Britannia

KOLKATA: India’s third largest listed packaged food company ITC's business crossed the Rs 10,000 crore sales milestone in 2019-20, narrowing the lead of the second ranked Britannia to about Rs 600 crore. Nestle India is the leader in the segment.

Retail sales of ITC's Aashirvaad brand atta crossed Rs 6,000 crore in sales last fiscal, growing by over 30%, as per latest disclosure in annual report. This makes the brand one of the largest in the food segment in India.

ITC's food business grew by 7.3% with gross sales of Rs 10,377.73 crore in FY20, as per the annual report.

In contrast, biscuit maker Britannia Industries had clocked sales of Rs 10,986.68 crore last fiscal. In FY18-19, the difference in sales between Britannia and ITC's food business was over Rs 810 crore. Nestle is India's largest listed food company with sales of Rs 12,368.9 crore last fiscal.

ITC's CEO for food business Hemant Malik said the growth across various food categories has been powered by a robust portfolio of world-class brands, a slew of first-to-market innovative offerings, a range of distinctive products customised to address consumers’ evolving needs, diverse regional tastes and preferences, besides ramping up offerings in the wellness segment.

He said Aashirvaad atta has fortified its market standing across geographies and has reached over 3.6 crore households. Aashirvaad has achieved its highest ever volume share of 39.2% within the branded atta segment in June this year as per IMRB data.

ITC, which has ambitions to become India's largest FMCG company, is betting heavily on the food business to achieve its goal and reduce dependence on the flagship cigarette business that has been under volume pressure due to recurrent increase in taxes. The food business last fiscal accounted for 80% of ITC's overall FMCG sales.

The Sunfeast biscuit brand is ITC's second largest FMCG brand that clocked retail sales of Rs 4,000 crore and Bingo! snacks Rs 2,700 crore last fiscal. The Classmate stationary brand touched Rs 1,400 crore and YiPPee instant noodles nearly Rs 1,300 crore.

ITC is market leader in branded atta, bridges segment of snacks, cream biscuit, notebooks and the second largest in overall snacks and potato chips segment, instant noodles, deodorant and agarbatti.

However, the company's stationary products business took a beating in January to March quarter due to coronavirus lockdown which impacted overall FMCG business performance last year.