After witnessing weak demand in September, the FMCG sector has picked up in the first two weeks of October by 11 per cent.
According to data sourced by BusinessLine from Bizom, a retail intelligence platform that tracks consumer product sales across 7.5 million outlets, an 11 per cent growth in sales month-on-month (M-o-M) was witnessed between October 1 to October 14 as compared to September 1 to September 14.
Further, ahead of the festival season, the Kirana stores have stocked up 26 per cent as compared to the first two weeks of September. There was however a 12 per cent dip in the number of Kirana stores being operated in the first two weeks of October owing to festivities.
“Despite headwinds of inflation, we’re seeing revenge festivities take centre stage as people look to celebrate the festive season in full fervour. We do see strong traction in sales of commodity products as homes and food-based business establishments look to stock up for significantly higher social interactions during this season,” said Akshay D’Souza, Chief of Growth & Insights, Bizom.
Increase in packaged products
As the country enters festivities, there has also been an uptake in the demand for packaged food products. “We are also seeing an increase in confectionery and packaged food product sales as Kiranas look to stock up gift packs for the exponential demand expected this month,” added Akshay.
Further, in September, the growth of FMCG dipped by -9.6 per cent M-o-M with rural India seeing a dip of -14.3 per cent. Meanwhile, the overall urban growth was 1.1 per cent, while in megacities it touched 2.9 per cent. In tier-II cities, it was -0.7 per cent, and in tier-III cities, it was -1.8 per cent.
The commodities in September witnessed a significant drop of -14.5 per cent M-o-M followed by homecare products (-8.6 per cent) and packaged foods (-6.7 per cent).