Pepsi Breaks Tobacco Rule At Top Of Charts
Sachin Baxi
QUIZ anyone in the FMCG industry about the
three largest brands in India by sales and you’ll be surprised at the responses. The
answer could be anything from Lifebuoy, Rin, Colgate, Pepsi and Britannia to even Surf and
Dalda. That’s as far off the mark as you can get. It’s cigarette brand Gold
Flake, at Rs 3,700 crore of sales, including excise, that tops the list of largest brands
by sales. At No. 2, it’s sister brand Wills (including Classic), and don’t be
surprised- it’s half the size of Gold Flake, at Rs 1,800 crore.
Other brands in the top 10 are those backed
by high-voltage advertising. At number three, it’s the choice of the new generation-
Pepsi, at Rs 1,740 crore. Despite what critics may say about Coke’s earlier strategy
to phase out Thums Up, it’s right up there at number four, at Rs 1,350 crore, ahead
of Coca-Cola at number eight with Rs 1,030 crore. Biscuit majors Britannia and Parle also
make it to the top 10, while Brand Colgate makes it to number six. The homegrown success
story Nirma is ranked at number seven with sales over Rs 1,100 crore, while HLL’s
price warrior Wheel finds pride of place at No. 10 position with Rs 814 crore. The figures
for brands mentioned here include all variants and categories- for instance, in the case
of Colgate, it includes the sales of toothpastes, toothpowders and toothbrushes.
It’s always difficult to ascertain the
size of brands in the fast moving consumer goods sector given the multitude of pack sizes,
price points, market share battles and a vast unorganised segment. For the first time in
India, Brand Equity presents the top 100 FMCG brands by sales. Based on AC Nielsen’s
retail audit data for the year ended August 2002, the survey throws up some interesting
insights into the Indian FMCG industry.
The figures for the carbonated soft drink
sector and cigarette brands included in the study fall outside the preview of AC Nielsen,
but we’ve included them in the list after talking to reliable market sources.
A study of the largest 100 brands by sales
throws up some interesting insights. The top 10 brands total Rs 15,230 crore- or more than
14% of India’s FMCG industry sales.
The largest brand, Gold Flake, is 4.5 times
the smallest brand Wagh Bakri at Rs 106 crore. At Rs 5,500 crore, the two cigarette brands
in the top 10 equal three soft drink brands and one fabric wash brand combined. The
largest brands also belong to the companies which are reputed to have the greatest
distribution width and scale, reaching into almost every part of India.
While the cigarette brands take the gold
and silver, in category rankings these give way to the soaps and drink brands. Personal
care, with 21 brands in the top 100 list, totalling Rs 6,885 crore, is the largest,
followed by cigarettes at Rs 6,575 crore and soft drinks at Rs 6,247 crore. While ITC Ltd
rules in the smoking zone, Hindustan Lever Ltd wipes the floor in the ‘cleaning’
category.
