ITC resorts to partial price hikes on its dairy products in a move to limit pain on buyers

The comments from the country's biggest maker of fast-moving consumer-goods comes on the back of its smaller rival Nestle India's grim outlook on rising input costs.

Dairy products range under ITC's Aashirvaad Svasti | Credit: aashirvaadsvasti.in

Kolkata: ITC Ltd. has opted for partial price increases on its dairy products, as one of India’s biggest maker of fast-moving consumer-goods seeks to limit the pain on buyers, a top official said Thursday.

The comments from Kolkata-based ITC, which earns 28% of its revenue from sale of consumer products that includes chips, cookies and soaps, comes on the back of its smaller rival Nestle India Ltd’s grim outlook on rising input costs.

“Every category has had inflationary headwinds,” said Sanjay Singal, chief operating officer for ITC’s diary and beverage segments. “ITC as a responsible manufacturer tries to limit the pressure on consumers,” he added.

The company is also a large manufacturer of cigarettes.

Inflation, based on retail prices, has galloped to a 17-month high of nearly 7%, as record energy costs, broken supply chains and the war in Ukraine make everything from raw materials to food grains expensive. Companies from the Indian units of Unilever Plc. and Suzuki Motor Corp. to homegrown JSW Steel Ltd. and Dabur Ltd. have been raising prices in response, posing a headache for monetary policymakers who are likely to raise interest rates in coming months.

While ITC recently passed on an increase in milk prices to consumers, it is broadly focused on reducing costs by lowering manufacturing wastage so that the company “first absorbs any inflation in milk, or plastic, or petrol through our own supply chains,” Singal said. –Bloomberg