There is no denying the fact that the stars of Patanjali Ayurved, the FMCG venture promoted by Yoga Guru Ramdev, have on been on the rise. Yes it has had its fair share of controversies, be it the FDSA in Merrut labelling its Atta noodles sub-standard due to high ash content or its products not being approved by FSSAI, yet this has not stopped the company from registering a 150% growth in turnover to 5000 crore in fiscal 2015-16 from 2000 crore in the previous fiscal. The company will invest over Rs. 1150 crore in the current fiscal to set up six processing units and one R&D center as it chases the target to achieve a turnover of Rs 10,000 crore. Its rival Nestle, HUL and Colgate-Palmolive registered a turnover of Rs 8,175 crore, 30,805 crore and 3,981 crore respectively at the end of 2015.
According to Acharya Balakrishna, MD, Patanjali Ayurved Ltd. The company is operating at a profit margin of 8-10 % with no shortage of funds for expansion. He added that the new units will come up in drought hit areas such as Vidharbha in Maharashtra and Bundelkhand in Uttar Pradesh and at least four four of these will be functional by the end of current fiscal. The units are likely to create more than 5 lakh jobs as per the company. Patanjali is also working towards increasing its exports and enhancing online presence.
Patanjali currently sells its products through 5000 distributors, 10,000 health centers and 100 Mega Marts pan India besides the real market where it has tied up with Future Group and Reliance Retail. It employs more than 15000 people.
The company has created four verticals i.e. Home Care, Natural Cosmetics and Health Care, Natural Food and Beverages and Health Drinks to drive its expansion plans.
According to Ramdev, to reach the new growth target the company will venture into new categories such as dairy, animal feed and garments for Yoga. It will enter the dairy segment this year with launch of milk, cheese, buttermilk and Paneer.
One can predict good times ahead for this fast growing enterprise.
