ITC plans to open more stores in high footfall locations

ITC Ltd has plans to open stores in high footfall locations to showcase its range of consumer products but it has no plans to monetise through them, chairman Sanjiv Puri said.

Addressing shareholders queries during the company’s 108th annual general meeting here on Friday, Puri said the stores will just showcase the expanded range of ITC products and not contest with its sales channel. “These stores will not compete with the channel partners,” he said. He, however, did not share any other details.

This comes at a time when ITC is betting on its newer FMCG business to generate Rs one lakh crore sales by 2030. The total portfolio of these brands had an annual consumer spend of over Rs 18,000 crore in FY19.

ITC is launching over 50 new products every year and has plans to venture into every possible category. At present, ITC operates in packaged food, personal care, education and stationary, agarbatti and safety matches.

Puri said ITC is working on multiple products which would be launched through the course of the year and will also take its dairy products pan-India. At present, the dairy business is limited to some geographies such as East and South and products like ghee, curd, milk, paneer and beverages.

In response to a shareholder query on competition from Oyo in the hotel business, Puri said while currently ITC Hotels and Oyo operates in different segments and have different positioning whereby there is no impact, but in the future they may overlap. “We have to be prepared for such a scenario and build ITC Hotel value proposition in such a way that it is superior to others so that there would be no impact even then,” he said.

In his AGM speech, Puri said ITC is engaging with the start-up ecosystem to gain from their vibrant innovative capabilities and also making investment to develop new products. He said ITC's distribution network reaches out to six million retail outlets.

"Over 50 products were launched last year to strengthen existing categories and enter new segments. A strong pipeline of products is constantly being readied for progressive launch to continue delighting our consumers and create new levers of growth for the FMCG businesses," he said.

Source:-https://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/food-entertainment/personal-care-pet-supplies-liquor/itc-plans-to-open-more-stores-in-high-footfall-locations/70200853