New Delhi, March 29: FMCG company Dabur India is
undertaking a major revamp of its sales force by dividing them
into separate independent units for foods, home and personal
care (HPC) and healthcare categories, as it prepares to meet
the challenges of market slowdown.
"We are launching a range of products this year. So in
order to increase sales of these products and grow our market
share in each of the categories in a faster rate, we are
introducing our new sales structure," Dabur India Chief
Operating Officer V S Sitaram told reporters.
Sitaram said the new sales strategy is also a preparation
for the potential slowdown that the sector can witness in the
future.
"So far the FMCG sector has not been affected but
considering the market condition, we don`t know how long it
will go. Our new initiative is a preparation for the worst
when the going is good," he said.
He said the company needs to channelise the sales forces
attention so that they are better equipped to meet the growing
competition and complexities in the market.
The new sales initiative, which the company has named as
Dare2, will be in contrast to its present structure where a
sales person handles a diverse range of products at its retail
points.
"Our new sales structure would be more category focussed.
We would also be increasing the strength of our sales force.
So a salesperson would be focussed on a particular category
rather than handling a variety of our products," he said.
He said the new structure would be effective from the
coming fiscal and would be rolled out in around 100 cities and
towns, including Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Kanpur and
Agra.
As a part of the strategy, the company plans to increase
sales force by around 25 per cent in the next fiscal, he said,
however, declining to share details such as the current
strength of the company`s sales team.
At present, Dabur`s products are available in over 2.5
million retail outlets across urban and rural markets in India
"With this new initiative, we would want to have a double
digit growth and increase our market share in all the
categories that we are present," Sitaram said.
Dabur India posted an increase of 19.4 per cent in
consolidated sales at Rs 673.60 crore for the third quarter of
this fiscal compared to that of last year. Its net sales for
the nine months period ending December 2008 stood at Rs
2,073.78 crore.
Bureau Report
