The Hindu Business Line : Future Group to launch slew of consumer goods

Mumbai, Sept. 23 After tasting success with its cola brand (Tasty Treat Cola), the Future Group is now poised to introduce a slew of consumer goods ranging from chocolates to toothpastes.

Mr Damodar Mall, Group Customer Director, Future Group, told Business Line, “Customers have surprised us in the cola category with our recently launched brand of Tasty Treat Cola. We believe today consumers are looking for more brands and we are now open to introducing new brands in every category.” Having served with FMCG stalwarts such as Hindustan Unilever in the past, Mr Mall is leveraging his experience to ready a slew of new fast moving consumer goods in the Future group’s retailing formats. “There would be 6-7 new products and they will all be under our private labels,” he states.

Currently, the Future Group has private labels such as Tasty Treat, Premium Harvest and Fresh ’N Pure in the foods category. “Today, most FMCG brands are well entrenched in their categories but as a retailer we have tasted success with our cola brand. In certain stores the shares of our brand have been higher than Coke and Pepsi and this has raised our hopes on our private labels,” added an official from the Future Group.

Private labels

With manufacturers squeezing most of the retailers’ margins, the latter are now slowly turning to their own brands to get healthier margins. “Today, most Indian manufacturers retain most of their margins unlike their international counterparts. In fact, most Indian retailers do not get more than 10-12 per cent of the manufacturers’ margins and the manufacturers enjoy higher power than the retailers in the Indian market. This combined with the high rentals has eaten into our margins and we believe this is the right time to extend the scope of our private labels,” said the Future Group official.

At the same time not all private labels have tasted success at the Food Bazaar outlets of the Future group. “Categories such as pickles and papad have not fared well at Food Bazaar. But at the same time we believe that the retailers’ brand is equal to the product brand,” stated the official.

In fact, at the recently concluded IRF (India Retail Forum), Mr Kishore Biyani, CEO, Future Group, had stated in a lighter vein that it was time to launch his own chocolates as he did not like the chocolate brands existing in the market. “India is still an unbranded country and we feel this is the right time to launch our own chocolates too,” said Mr Biyani.

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Future Group to launch slew of consumer goods