Reporting significant sales growth in the latest quarter, global companies such as Mondelez, Colgate – Palmolive and Unilever are upbeat about opportunities in India and said the country remains a bright spot. Several companies posted a double digit year-on-year volume growth for the December quarter.
“India is very strong, we had a 27 percent growth in Q4, but that’s of course lapping the demonetization. Still, we grew double-digits without that, and overall for the year India is up 12%,” Brian Gladden, CFO at Mondelez, said in an earnings call. “We see a growing middle class, we still have a low per capita consumption of chocolates, and the GDP growth rates are pretty strong. So we are overall very bullish on India,” he added.
Companies expect a volume boost from price-cuts that started in July last year and were further accelerated after the GST Council dropped tax rates on 200 products, including chocolates, toothpaste, shampoo, washing powder, and shaving creams, to 18 percent from 28 percent.
