Just cut out the sweat and chill with these stock picks from the consumer space. ET Big Bucks selects evergreen winners that boast of strong managements, good growth momentum and strong competitive advantages

Company Financials Net Sales Net Profit M-Cap Stock Price(Rs) Bajaj Auto 7,488 1,101 28,579 2,824.55 ICICI Bank 13,784 2,540 58,047 650.60 Pantaloon Retail 1,084 38.55 4,294 45.70 ITC 9,786 2,235 68,855 183.30 Bharti Airtel 11,229 2,012 83,139 438.65 INOX 107 18 982 163.60 PVR 129 5 563 246.20 Figures in Rs Crore Except Stock Price Pantaloon's results for the year-ended June '05

'Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years'

'Our favourite holding period is forever'

TWO pithy statements, coming from someone widely acknowledged as one of the best investors of our time. The wisdom of holding on to a good company for good shouldn't be underestimated - take, for instance, Reliance and Infosys. There are three broad investment themes in the Indian market currently - Indian consumer market, India outsourcing and infrastructure. Here, we focus on the Indian consumer market to look at companies which offer longterm value to the shareholder.

ET Big Bucks takes a look at top picks from sectors which cater to the Indian mass market. We trawled through sectors like FMCG, auto, consumer finance, retailing, entertainment, telecom, travel and so on. We looked for companies with strong managements, good growth momentum and strong competitive advantages. Within this set, we finally zeroed in on one strong company from each sector. The result is a list of potential winners over the long term that stand to benefit the most from increasing consumer spending - the likely outcome of the growth being witnessed today. The stocks listed by us are not cheap by any of the conventional metrics like P/E or book value, but that is not their USP either. Their USP is India's 300-million strong middle-class that was once an article of faith and eventually turned out to be a mirage. But as they say, this time it's for real.

FMCG - ITC: ITC over HLL is not an easy one, but in the past 2-3 years, ITC seems to be winning the debate. The deciding factor was the stable cash flows from its existing tobacco business being invested to create a strong position in areas like FMCG, hotels and others. ITC's tobacco business is growing at 8-9%, while the FMCG segment clocked Rs 650 crore in FY06, a growth of almost 80% Y-o-Y. The company also enjoys the highest operating and net profit margin in the industry. With one of the largest dealer network in the country and an established sourcing and supply chain platform, the food verticals are all set to grow exponentially. ITC's key strength is its ability to keep finding newer growth engines on a regular basis. In the food business, it has carved out a market share of around 10% in the highly competitive biscuit market in a very short time, while in packaged staples like atta, 'Ashirwaad' has grabbed 45% market share in short period. A cash-rich asset base has helped ITC's brand-building capabilities and the company has demonstrated that by establishing brands like Sunfeast, Ashirwaad and Mint O. The management has wisely focused only on areas where it has a robust backend. It has also invested in supply-chain initiatives like e-choupals, which have opened up huge growth avenues. ITC has two diversifications where may emerge as a leader: hotels and paper-boards.

So, if you are a conservative investor who doesn't want to trade day in and day out, or someone who is too lazy to do it, you know where to put your money and sit tight.