even as they check spending on discretionary or premium products much of the growth slowdown has been at the premium end which contributes just 25 to the top line of godrej consumer products said managing director vivek gambhir over the last few quarters almost 40 of the growth has been driven by new launches and innovations we are also insulated from the slowdown due to the fact that most of our categories are less discretionary in nature he said most consumer goods companies posted earnings that were below expectations in the june quarter with discounts and price cuts not lifting sales by any appreciable degree domestic revenues of indian fmcg players grew 106 in the first quarter the slowest in the past 16 while gross margin expansion in fmcg in the past few quarters was supported by softening raw material prices the recent runup in commodity rates will put pressure on this more so for categories such as soaps and detergents for instance the price of linear alkyl benzene lab used to make detergents and some personal care products is now at its highest in rupee terms in the past nine years we had to actually sustain growth by offering a lot of priceoffs and discounts last quarter which is generally our peak season hence cost of consumer acquisition has been high but the growth will be challenging to maintain without price cuts said bk rao group product manager at parle products still a few companies have been raising prices hindustan unilever did so for soaps toothpastes and skincare products marico recently increased prices of the parachute portfolio by 56 indias consumer goods producers will be hoping the governments expectations about a secondhalf revival will come true and pessimists are proven wrong by sagar malviya ratna bhushan et bureau published on oct 22 2013 at 0654 am ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our moderators to take actions reasons for reporting foul language defamatory inciting hatred against a certain community out of context spam others report join the community of 2m industry professionals subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights analysis download etretail app get realtime updates save your favourite articles scan to download app hindustan unilever hul godrej nestle rural market sanjeev chadha homenewsconsumer goods sales hit close to a 10year low as people prepare for worse