Patanjali products ‘ cater to the needs of the common man’

It has been a spectacular growth for Baba Ramdev-promoted Patanjali Ayurved. Patanjali becomes the third largest seller of FMCG products at the shelves of Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail after HUL, followed by P&G. Its sales have grown 20 per cent this month from the previous month.

BTVI discusses the business matrix as well as the road ahead for the company with Acharya Balkrishna, Managing Director at Patanjali Ayurved.

Patanjali Ayurved is number 3 in FMCG sales at the shelves of Future Retail after HUL and P&G. What is your growth outlook for FY17?

We are working with utmost honesty.

Our entire team of has been working hard relentlessly to bring the best products at most affordable rates in the market.

We have kept our marketing and advertising cost lowest in the industry in comparison to our peers.

Our focus is that the products should reach the last man. And the news of Patanjali Ayurved becoming number 3 in FMCG sales at Future Retail is not only heartening for us, but also equally heartening for our customers who want the swadeshi brand to grow.

Very soon, Patanjali sales will grow significantly in other places. And our entire team is working towards it.

You are coming up with Patanjali Aastha in home worship category. It is a new area. As we know, this is a market where there a lot of unorganised and low cost players. What are your strategies and plans in this area?

Right from the beginning, we have a one-point agenda: We create products taking into account the needs and demands of the common man.

We are not interested which area is organised, which is unorganised. To serve the people, to serve the country is important for us.

As far as the issue of number-1 is concerned, we are confident that the way we have been working, the way Patanjali Ayurved is getting acceptability; we will be number-1 in each and every segment soon.

I must mention here that it is a general trend that customers belonging to different segments choose different brands. And Patanjali has succeded in breaking that trend.

To give you an example, when a driver goes the store along with his boss today, they might buy products as per their choice for brands, but the common products both buy is Patanjali.

People say X product is meant for higher income group, Y product for higher middle class and Z product for lower middle class segment.

But Patanjali products are reaching the homes of both the rich and the poor.

We will continue to bring the best products at most affordable prices in the market and our brand acceptability will continue across the financial segments.

As far as the growth in turnover is concerned, where do we see Patanjali in the next 3-5 years? Currently you have 5,000 stores. How many more stores do you plan to add in the next one year?

We are going in various ways — Patanjali stores, Patanjali mega stores, Modern Stores and other retails.

We are working on all the possibilities to make our products available to the people.

In Patanjali stores, we are increasing the stock. We are also increasing the stock in other stores — which sell our products — through the network of our distributors.

We have opened as many as 100 Patanjali mega stores in metro cities. We are safe as far as Modern Store is concerned.

We will reach in other retails where we have not reached so far.

As far as our turnover is concerned, we have crossed ₹5,000 crore in FY16. As Baba Ramdev has aptly said, we will definitely cross ₹10,000 crore mark in FY17.

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