As Maharashtra imposed fresh restrictions with cases rising in the state, under the new "Break the Chain" plan, the government has asked restaurants and bars to remain shut until April 30 for in-dining but can provide home deliveries until 8 pm.
Mayank Shah, Senior Category Head at Parle Products spoke to CNBC-TV18 to talk about the demand picture. Shah said, "As far as foods are concerned and processed food are concerned they are severe in a situation like this. People normally load their pantries, there is some amount of speculative buying also that happens."
"If restrictions come in then obviously there would be an inclination towards buy more of processed food, packaged food. It suits very well in a situation like this due to higher shelf life people stock processed food at home. We have started seeing early signs of people stocking food."
Speaking about Q4, Shah said, "Maharashtra, as a market is one of the important markets for us, almost about -7 percent of our total revenue contribution, comes from Maharashtra. Last financial year Q1 and Q2 were relatively good in terms of traction that we had seen in terms of improvement in demand. Q3 onwards we saw tapering in demand as restaurants and other things started opening up."
"For both Parle as well as the industry we anticipate good growth coming in for FY21-22 because of two reasons one is the penetration of biscuits have increased to a large extent and secondly considering the current situation the demand till then would continue to be robust."
On price increase, he explained, "We have to continue to ensuring that we don’t increase prices at this juncture. There might be some tapering in demand as a result of increase in prices so yes input cost are hurting but I think currently most companies are absorbing it."
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(Edited by : Jerome Anthony)
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