Spirituality in business is a very crucial element – it induces peace, calm and a balanced approach. But what if spirituality turns into hardcore business?
It seems that business is the new moksha, as Spiritual and Religious Gurus of India having millions of dedicated followers are now all set to sell FMCG products in India, and become business czars of the new India.
And the source of inspiration if Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurveda, which will soon churn out $1 billion (Rs 7000 crore) of revenues and become India’s 5th largest FMCG company after Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Nestle India and Britannia Industries.
Patanjali – Soon To Be Billion Dollar FMCG Corporation
Established as a small manufacturing unit in 2007, and having just 200 outlets in 2014, Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved has right now 5000+ franchises all over India, and they have just reported revenues of Rs 3267 crore for the 10-month period ending January 2016.
This is a massive jump of 106% compared to last year, when they reported revenues of Rs 1587 crore. As per rating agency Brickwork, “PAL (Patanjali) has expanded its basket of products tremendously over the last year. Sustaining this with profitable growth requires continuous R&D, enlargement of contract manufacturing and quality control..”
They have narrowed their gap with decades old FMCG firms from India like Dabur (Rs 4233 crore revenue) , Marico (Rs 3903 crore revenue) and Godrej Consumer (Rs 3585 crore revenue); and by 2017, they are expecting to become India’s 5th largest FMCG company. In fact, all other Indian FMCG companies are growing at a modest rate of 8%, while due to aggressive advertisements, low pricing and reach of deep rural belts, Patanjali is growing at a breakneck speed of 100%+ year on year.
Ghee is Patanjali’s best selling product contributing 35% of its sale; while healthcare contributes around 20%. They have around 500 products right now, ranging from cosmetic products to ayurveda capsules.
We had already reported how Patanjali has beaten big FMCG players in TV advertisements; and how they are planning to take on Nike and Adidas in clothes market as well.
Edelweiss Securities’ associate director Abneesh Roy said, “Even after excluding ghee which is a commodity product, PAL (Patanjali) will likely overtake these mid-sized companies in term of sales by FY17 as it has been expanding reach rapidly and adding capacity to support it,”
With revenues of Rs 500 crore every month, Patanjali is aiming to hit Rs 7000 crore by 2017, which would be a revolution in the FMCG industry.
Spirituality Is The New Business
Inspired by the tremendous success of Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali products, other high profile and powerful spiritual gurus are now taking FMCG business seriously, and they are all set to unleash newer products in this sector.
For instance, Sri Sri Ayurveda (SSA), which a company floated by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living has already started media buying in various publications, TV channels and have come up with an aggressive strategy to sell their ayurveda products.
In fact, SSA is older than Patanjali, but they had only concentrated on passive selling via their own network and via events/spiritual camps. They already have a strong digital presence (app, ecommerce website) and a dedicated community of 350 million+ followers.
As per a report by Edelweiss, “SSA is beginning to use mass media, point of sale advertising and decent digital presence (has an app, available on own/other websites); at the World Cultural Festival, Kishore Biyani expressed his openness to discuss selling SSA products at Future Group stores (similar to tie-up with Patanjali),”
The same report says that SSA will soon launch several products such as “breakfast cereals, cookies, atta, oils, spices, ready-to-cook items and a range of organic staples for select markets.”; and market them aggressively all over India.
From 600 stores right now, SSA is planning to launch 2500+ stores by 2017, besides partnering with ecommerce portals, retail chains and other offline strategies.
Similarly, other prominent spiritual gurus: Dera Sacha Sauda’s Guru Ram Rahim, Aurobindo Ashram and Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev are also about to jump into this niche, and create their own market.
There are numerous ways to attain moksha; but there ain’t any method like business.