Retail Dude

Hope you did read the 1st? That would help….

Last quarter was bad - globally. Pathetic specifically for India. We found vehicle sales plummeting, sophisticated software companies revealing crude misappropriations, IIP on an all time low, re-ignition of the India-Pak short-circuits & what not. Overall a gloomy situation, fanning senses of insecurity.

However, two sectors have been growing relentlessly, silently at times and definitely (without any fudging that is). Telecom and FMCG. How? Why? Aren’t the consumers delaying expenditures here?

As we did discuss a few months back, certain sectors seem to be completely “insulated” from eventualities!

Not only have FMCG & Telco majors like HLL, ITC, Airtel notched up better top-lines. They have also managed significant improvements on their bottom-lines! IF cost-cutting and SKU-rationalising were the secrets behind such successes, then shall we say that all other did ”very poorly” in comparison?

The difference is simple & just requires us to remove the blinkers. Even if for a little while.

Almost ALL the growth of these companies came on the back of exceptionally good “rural” traction! I have sopken to quite a few people from our hinterlands in the past week or so. You know what? They have not even heard about Satyam or Nifty or Madoff! Neither have their “liquidity” dried up. Fuel price cuts have made them very happy though. Moser-Baer’s clever DVD pricing has delighted them. But big cuts in airfares are way above their radar!

I presume that’s a whole lot one can say about resilience of the Indian economy.

Pet Shop Boys had a huge top-of-the-pop hit around the 90s. It featured on MTV for not less than 3 months, regularly. The track was “Go West”.

It’s time we had such good news. Go Rural dudes, there’s enough for 3 generations…..to make a success of.

Related Reading : http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDkvMDEvMTQjQXIwMjIwMQ==&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom

- Arnab

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