Much like the last financial year, this has been a unique year. While the first half of the financial year was weak, the second half has provided growth to the business and sets the company back on a strong growth trajectory. While FMCG performance in 2020 was led by COVID-19 induced consumer stock up and VAT increase, 2021 was largely affected by consumers rationalising purchases due to pressure on the wallet and rising inflation. Overall FMCG and Dairy markets remained flat on a value basis in 2021.
Key Category trends -The overall Plain Milk market was on a declining trend in 2021 owing to deep discounting of prices and rationalisation of consumer spending. However, with the easing of deep discounting in the last quarter of 2021, there are signs of recovery for the Saudia brand. On Flavored milk, Saudia Value shares grew almost 3 points on a Moving Annual total basis, spurred by strong brand campaigns and improved distribution and visibility in stores. On Tomato Paste as well, there is a slight recovery on Saudia Sales and shares in recent months. Modern Trade shows encouraging growth in recent months whereas on Traditional channels, where syndicated data is less reliable, there is a marked improvement in Distribution, especially of the convenient 70gm pack on back of focused distribution drives and other activities. In recent months, we have executed the 1st season of the Saudia Chef campaign with great success and launched Saudia Tomato Paste’s new ATL campaign in time for Ramadan. The strongest performance this year has been on the Ice Cream segment with strong Sales, Share and Distribution growth behind new freezers being added into the market. In the last year, Saudia has maintained its leadership shares in Sandwich, Pushups and Cones, and gained overall market leadership in Tubs and Milk Stick.
