Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) on Wednesday said that it was on the right track for a gradual recovery in volume growth and "if that recovery sustains, we should be able to get to somewhere in the high single-digit volume growth in the second half of the year.”

"What has been encouraging for us is that if I look at the volume growth that we have seen in Q2, it is on par or little bit better than the volume growth that we had seen in Q1 and across the various months between July, August and September, September growth was better than July and August. So I think, as we look at pace of recovery while the environment still remains quite challenging, we are quite hopeful that the platform is in place for a gradual recovery," said Vivek Gambhir, managing director and CEO of GCPL.

In terms of improvement in demand, he said, “It is very early but if I look at July, August and September, the growth rate for Q2 would be at par if not better than the growth rate that we have seen in Q1.”

On household insecticides, he said, “We had a couple of tough years as far as insecticide is concerned. Our marketshare positions have continued to remain very strong and we have been launching some very exciting innovations with a few more that are planned in the months ahead. So, I do believe that we should see an improved performance on insecticides going forward."

“We have not taken any price cuts in soaps in Q2 of this year. I think our pricing has been very competitive and we do believe that we offer the best value across our portfolio of soaps. So our strategy is to continue, actually build in the consumer franchise launching innovations. But we did not take any price cuts in Q2,” added Gambhir.

Gambhir said that the margins were quite healthy and so as long as the volume growth is sustained, they will follow.

Speaking about the impact of competition, he said, “We have been very pleased with our performance in liquid detergents where we have a very strong market position through our Ezee and Genteel brands, largely in liquid detergents. The brands have been doing very well for us. We do believe there are significant opportunities for us to scale up our presence in this category and so liquid detergents and specialist laundry solutions will be a very big focus area for us over the next few years.”

First Published:Oct 9, 2019 11:17 AM IST