Amidst inflationary pressures, Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting said its India consumer business clocked a growth of about 9 per cent in FY22 compared to the previous fiscal. The company’s soap brand, Santoor, has crossed the ₹2,300 crore-mark in India, the company’s top official said on Monday.

The company’s overall revenues stood at over ₹8,630 crore in FY22.

Vineet Agrawal, CEO, Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting, told BusinessLine, “The overall revenue growth was at about 4 per cent in FY22 compared to FY21 as business in some international markets, especially China and the Philippines, was hit quite badly. But I think the bounce back is clearly happening in the current quarter. We believe the India consumer business should grow between 16-18 per cent in the first quarter of FY23. Santoor alone should grow at 16 per cent plus this quarter. Inflation continues to be a challenge in India and so a lot of the growth is price-led. “

He said the international business of the company in markets such as Malaysia, Vietnam, the Middle East and South Africa is expected to grow between 16 and 20 per cent in the June quarter while challenges remain in markets such as China and Indonesia.

The maker of Santoor and Yardley said that India’s consumer business clocked about 9 per cent growth in FY22 compared to FY21 and the two-year-CAGR stood at about 13 per cent.

An unprecedented surge in palm oil prices and other raw material costs led the company to increase prices of its leading brand Santoor by nearly 19 per cent over the past 8 months.“ This includes two rounds of price hikes done in the June quarter. So, a 100 gm pack of Santoor, which was priced at ₹32 earlier, is now priced at ₹38. We have not passed on the complete impact of inflationary pressures as palm oil prices surged nearly 50 per cent in the September-May period,” Agrawal added.

Cost-optimisation measures

In other categories, price hikes of 4-5 per cent have been implemented by the FMCG major in the June quarter. The company has also been banking on other cost-optimisation measures such as switching to relatively cheaper fat mixes for soaps. It is also focussing sharply on more efficient commodity procurement strategies.

“So fortunately, palm oil prices have cooled down a bit in the past two weeks. Hopefully, measures taken by the government on fuel prices as well as a cooling down in prices in other categories, such as edible oils, seen recently, should also bring some relief for consumers. We hope the cooling off in terms of palm oil prices continues as one would be hesitant to take any further price hikes,” he added.

Rural markets performance

Responding to a query on rural market performance, Agrawal said,” One can clearly see a slowdown in rural demand. Therefore, we are hoping the good monsoons will help the flow of money into the hands of rural consumers. We will continue to focus a lot more on rural areas as we believe that rural consumption will increase in the long term, driven by the shift from an unorganised to an organised segment.”

Meanwhile, the company has invested close to ₹100 crore in start-ups through Wipro Consumer Care Ventures. “We are now also looking at investing in start-ups in Southeast Asia in the next quarter, especially in markets like Indonesia and Vietnam,” he added.