Nestle India annual sales cross ₹10,000crore mark in 2017

NEW DELHI: Swiss packaged food company Nestle SA has finally joined the ₹10,000 crore sales club in India—more than a century after it entered the burgeoning market to sell Swiss condensed milk as a trader.

On Wednesday, its local entity Nestle India Ltd reported total sales at ₹10,135.11 crore for the year ended December 2017. The maker of Maggi noodles, Kit Kat chocolates and Nescafe instant coffee mixes follows a Januarydecember accounting year.

Nestle, which began trading in India in 1912, is the first listed “pure-play food company” to cross ₹10,000 crore in sales in India. While there are many packaged goods companies in India with more than ₹10,000 crore sales, Nestle India is among the very few to have crossed the mark with a pure-play food business. Among the listed firms, ITC Ltd’s food business was estimated at around ₹8,000 crore in fiscal year ended March 31, 2017 and Britannia Industries Ltd reported sales at ₹8,684 crore in FY17. The country’s largest packaged goods company Hindustan Unilever Ltd and New Delhibased Dabur India Ltd have much smaller food businesses.

Among unlisted firms, Amul brand marketer Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd’s revenue stood at ₹27,043 crore in FY17, according to a company statement issued last year. Biscuit maker Parle Products Pvt. Ltd reported ₹9,331.42 crore revenue from operations in FY16, according to its filings with Registrar of Companies (ROC). Nestle India may well have crossed the ₹10,000 crore mark in sales a couple of years back, had its Maggi noodles not been slapped with a ban in 2015 over a health scare that caused an estimated half-abillion-dollar dent to the firm.