- Patanjali Ayurved has been able to revert the decline after a year of faltering sales.
- The firm has posted the highest-ever revenue for April-September.
The Ayurveda major clocked Rs 8,330 crore revenue for 2018-19, 2.4% higher than the Rs 8,136 crore it posted in 2017-18, according to its filings with the Company Registrar. While the company did not reveal its profit or loss for the year, it was the largest category of food and beverages according to its fillings— accounting for 62.23 percent of its total sales of Rs 5,184 crore.
Chemical products, pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemicals and botanical products— primarily representing their range of personal care— contributed 34.99% to their top line. Items from wood and wood furniture, pulp and paper contributed 2.4%.
Patanjali’s top-line growth that used to rise by leaps and boundaries— between 2012-13 and 2016-17 — has since fallen. Nonetheless, last year’s success suggests a downward slope reversal it finds itself in 2017-18. This dropped by 9.3% in 2017-18 from Rs 8,964 crore operating revenue in 2016-17.
The company based in Haridwar posted revenue of 1,793 crores in April-June and 1,769 crores in the current fiscal period in July-September, a company official said.
“This is the Patanjali Ayurved statistic and does not mean all business. We have done internal reconstruction and some of the product lines that the company had previously managed have been transferred to various companies,” an official said.
The company reported sales of 937 crore and 1,576 crore respectively in the quarter of June and the quarter of September 2018-19.
The most surprising and visible thing is that a comeback was made by Patanjali Ayurved.
What caused disruptions at a time:
According to the company, Patanjali’s sales were severely disrupted by the implementation of goods and services tax (GST) in mid-2017. The initial GST-related problems and the realignment work required in 2017 cost the firm two months of its business due to its implementation. A report stated that the decline was “primarily due to its inability to adapt to the GST regime in time and to build infrastructure and supply chain.“
The Revival of Patanjali:
In 2018, Patanjali adopted a multi-pronged approach to combat falling sales. By adding mom and pop stores, the company, which depended heavily on branded outlets until 2017, started going deeper into the market. Patanjali hired 11,000 field staff in mid-2018 to strengthen its sales and distribution in general trade and set a target of doubling that number within the financial year.
Patanjali Ayurved, which used to see 70% of its revenue from branded Patanjali stores until the beginning of 2018, set a catering target of 3 million outlets by the end of 2019.
Patanjali, which lost market share to his rivals such as Hindustan Unilever and Colgate, recovered some of the lost grounds in 2018-19. Colgate-Palmolive has lost market share, mainly to Patanjali and Dabur, according to Nielsen data. HUL’s share fell to 16.4 percent by 80 basis points.
Colgate-Palmolive has lost its market share by eight percentage points since 2015, according to estimates by research firm Jefferies, as Patanjali’s herbal-natural products have attracted buyers. In reality, Colgate launched a new’ Ved Shakti ‘ sub-brand and reinvigorated the Cibaca brand to combat the increasing threat.
