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Context is everything.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
The status quo on taxes on cigarettes over the last four years has seen their sales drive the company’s profits, outstripping the contribution of its FMCG business.
Editor's note: The top question on everyone’s mind is whether ITC will pip Hindustan Unilever's valuation yet again. Despite a visible slowdown in the earnings of consumer goods companies, analysts are bullish on the cigarette maker, which has for years tried to push its FMCG business. Is their call misplaced? Even a year ago, the question would have sounded absurd. There seemed little chance that ITC, which made 80% of its profits from cigarettes, was ever going to go past HUL, the leading consumer goods company, after having lost its top slot to it in 2018. A year ago, ITC was valued at Rs 310,000 crore, less than half of HUL’s Rs 644,000 crore valuation then. And two years ago, analysts were exasperated that the ITC stock hadn’t performed for a decade. The company was diverting all the profits it made in the cigarette business to the foods and hotels business that wasn’t profitable enough to have a say in the stock’s valuation. In February 2020, just before the pandemic struck, the ITC stock had fallen to a seven-year low of Rs …
The FMCG major acquired the maker of Ching’s Secret to make the most of its high margins, but things didn’t go to plan. Two years and a few lessons later, TCPL is trying to change that.
Reliance Consumer Products is relying on aggressive pricing in the hope that its staples brand will become a household name. But such tactics can go only so far.
Peace talks bring relief to the Emirates, but there’s still a ways to go before full-scale recovery.
