Heavy discount in place until inventory pile-up cleared: Parle Product

Mayank Shah, Senior Category Head of Parle Product, in an interview with CNBC-TV18, said around 10-15 percent discounts are being offered currently on food and beverages.

“This is a temporary phenomenon, just to get over with the inventory which we expect will get cleared probably in the next 15 days or so,” he said.

He added that last year nobody had a clue on how the situation will turn out and there was a speculative buying. People overbought stocks last year and that drove the consumption.

"Most food companies saw good Q1 last year. This time around companies were well prepared unlike last time and they not only saw an increase in demand coming in from consumers, but they also nibbled in the share of a few other companies. All those things were not there this time. The consumer also knew that grocery shops would be opened, so even the consumer moderated his buying,” he added.

“All this resulted in relatively lower demand than what the company is expected. While they geared up and produced more than last year, there was this mismatch between demand and supply. As a result of this, there is a bit of discounting that we are seeing currently,” he shared.