Dabur India gears up for next growth wave with Buniyad project

In a bid to increase its focus on rural India and leverage on emerging sales channels, Dabur India has revamped its sales structure by splitting its front-end teams across portfolios and geographies for improving sales and growing its smaller brands.

The company said despite tough times due to various factors, including demonetisation, its key brands such as Dabur Red Paste and Dabur Anmol Coconut Oil, besides the food business, performed well in 2016-17.

In its annual report for 2016-17, the company said it undertook a new distribution initiative project called “ Buniyad ” to prepare for the next growth wave.

“Under this initiative, the front-end sales team across urban and rural markets was split into three categories — Home & Personal Care, Healthcare & Foods. With separate teams now handling individual portfolios, the focus is on improving sales while helping grow smaller brands across product categories,” it added.

As part of this strategy, the home-grown FMCG firm has appointed over 1,000 rural sales promoters and has provided them hand-held devices to access real-time information about rural outlets and purchase-patterns.

For urban markets, too, Dabur has ramped up its sales field force and strengthened its engagement with modern retailers.

“The company is embarking on an ambitious e-commerce strategy, particularly for healthcare and food categories,” it added.

Doctor advocacy Dabur India is also strengthening engagement strategies with Ayurvedic and Allopathic doctors as part of its initiative focussed on doctor advocacy.

“This year, we expanded our reach to 5,000 more Allopathic doctors, taking our total reach to over 14,000 doctors across India. In addition, our Ayurvedic doctor and Vaid coverage now extends to 22,000 across India,” the company said.

It has also expanded its reach through 387 Ayurvedic centres that act as sales and advocacy centres.

On the performance of its key brands, the company said Dabur Red Paste had achieved a turnover of ₹500 crore and had now become the ‘third largest toothpaste brand” in the country.

Dabur Anmol Coconut Oil was set to cross the ₹100-crore mark.

The foods business, which includes juices and culinary products, also reported strong growth, almost touching ₹1,000 crore sales during 2016-17, it said.

Analysts noted that the company had launched 17 new products during 2016-17 across categories, such as Madhurakshak Activ, tea sticks and sachet formats for Honitus Hot Sip, while expanding its honey products range with honey fruit spreads.

“Strategically, Dabur will continue to focus on its Ayurvedic heritage to promote its existing portfolio as well as introduce new products by leveraging its over-a-century-old experience in this area,” the company said in the annual report.

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