TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ A biopic series on the life of yoga-guru-turned-entrepreneur Ramdev was premiered on the new general entertainment channel Discovery Jeet recently. While the series highlighted many unknown facets of Ramdev, a key part was on his journey of taking Patanjali, an ayurveda consumer goods company co-founded by him and close aide Balkrishna, to the top.
At Rs 10,561 crore, which is its top line for the financial year 2016-17, Patanjali is easily among the leading consumer goods players in the country, having multiplied revenue over 20 times in the last five years.
The period also saw the firm take its brand from relative obscurity to the forefront of the ayurveda consumer goods landspace on the back of its belief in India’s age-old medicinal system. Numbers for the financial year 2017-18 are yet to be announced by Patanjali.
Most other consumer goods firms, meanwhile, grew only between 8 and 12 per cent in terms of top line in the last five years. Many players have been struggling to comprehend the Patanjali phenomenon and how to combat it. With the initial storm having quelled now, the questions is: how Patanjali is currently performing, and have rivals managed to fight it out all over the last few quarters?
With the initial storm having quelled now, the questions is: how Patanjali is currently performing, and have rivals managed to fight it out all over the last few quarters? The December quarter numbers of the firms directly competing with Patanjali provide an answer to this question. Hindustan Unilever (HUL), which is the country’s largest consumer goods company, saw an 11 per cent underlying volume growth in the third quarter.
