ITC sets Rs 1 trillion target in 15 years
Chairman of ITC, YC Deveshwar hopes to further transform ITC Ltd.
01 Jun 2015 | 2580 Views | By Samir Lukka
The CEO, who the Harvard Business Review has rated as the world’s seventh best performing CEO in 2013, on the basis of growth in total shareholder returns and market capitalisation, said while speaking at a business conclave in New Delhi that "ITC Ltd will continue to aggressively grow its non-cigarette business".
Deveshwar said, adding that a Rs 1 trillion target for the business in five years is not beyond its reach. ITC has in the last fortnight entered the juice market and will roll out its dairy products within a year. Coffee is the next big bet for the company that wants to be in “any category that can be classified as FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods)".
In January ITC launched B Natural, a juice brand it acquired from a Bangalore based company in May 2014 for an undisclosed sum. B Natural will compete with the PepsiCo’s Tropicana and Dabur’s Real brands in the USD 2.5 billion (2012) juice and nectars market, which one study slated to grow to about USD 21 billion by 2018.
On 1 June, ITC was quoting at Rs 332.75, up Rs 6.00, or 1.84 percent. The 52-week high of the share was Rs 409.70 and the 52-week low was Rs 312.95.
According to a financial report, ITC posted disappointing numbers with net sales growth of 0.5% to Rs 9188.2 crore (I-direct estimate: Rs 9667.7 crore) mainly due to 28.8% de-growth in its agri-business. There was a muted 3.2% growth in cigarettes & 8.1% growth in hotels segment. However, FMCG segment witnessed moderate revenue growth of 10.9%.