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New Delhi: India’s consumer goods companies are on a hiring spree to cater to the emerging clout of the rural buyer, who has been the sector’s saving grace this year amid rising material costs, shrinking margins, and increasing competition.
New Delhi: India’s consumer goods companies are on a hiring spree to cater to the emerging clout of the rural buyer, who has been the sector’s saving grace this year amid rising material costs, shrinking margins, and increasing competition.
Companies such as Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, Dabur India Ltd and ITC Ltd are expanding their workforce in rural markets to align with their revamped marketing and distribution strategies. Rural consumer demand has outpaced urban markets this year, with good monsoon showers and rich harvests allowing rural shoppers to indulge in their fondness for packaged foods, energy drinks, and hair dyes.
Companies such as Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, Dabur India Ltd and ITC Ltd are expanding their workforce in rural markets to align with their revamped marketing and distribution strategies. Rural consumer demand has outpaced urban markets this year, with good monsoon showers and rich harvests allowing rural shoppers to indulge in their fondness for packaged foods, energy drinks, and hair dyes.
Mumbai-based Godrej Consumer Products, for instance, has increased hiring in rural areas alongside introducing smaller and more affordable packs across key consumer goods categories to drive deeper penetration in rural markets. “To support this initiative, we have increased our rural workforce, enabling us to double our outlet and village coverage," said Krishna Khatwani, head of sales (India), Godrej Consumer Products, which has warned of weaker margin and volumes for the December quarter chiefly because of higher input costs.
Delhi-based Dabur is deploying more on-ground sales force, particularly for its foods business, which the company said has “significant rural potential and high penetration opportunities".
“We have been focusing on strengthening our competitive edge in the marketplace by investing in scaling up our rural footprint and rolling out consumer-centric innovations," said Biplab Baksi, executive director-human resources, at Dabur, which sells hair oils, toothpaste, and spices, among other products. “We have expanded our rural footprint to 122,000 villages. This expansion drive will continue," Baksi added.
Recruitment firms estimate that fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies have ramped up hiring in rural markets by 10-15% this financial year.
Balasubramanian Ananthanarayanan, senior vice president at recruitment firm Teamlease Services, estimates a 10% growth in hiring by FMCG firms in the rural segment. “Urban inflation is high, especially house rentals, leading to sluggishness. This has pushed FMCG players to focus on rural markets whose growth has far outstripped their urban counterparts in the last three quarters," he said.
A spokesperson for ITC said that as part of the company’s ITC Next strategy, “we have been actively looking at enhancing penetration and reach of our FMCG products across geographies, including in rural markets. The objective has been to expand markets and salesforce across rural geographies through a hub-and-spoke distribution model".
ITC’s rural stockist network has increased by over 1.3 times over the last two years, the spokesperson added.
A reverse migration?
Consumer demand in rural areas surpassed that in urban areas for a third consecutive quarter in the three months ended September, according to NielsenIQ, a consumer intelligence company. Volume growth in rural markets was 6%, twice as fast as in the urban markets, which increased 2.8%.
Consumers in smaller cities and rural areas are increasingly demanding higher quality and a wider selection of products, and improved buying experience as well. “Hence, there’s a projected increase of 60% in the number of SKUs that FMCG firms are deploying in rural areas," said Ananthanarayanan of Teamlease. SKUs are stock-keeping units and denote the unique number attached to a product.
Sunil C., country manager for recruitment firm Adecco India, estimates a 15% quarterly increase in hiring by FMCG companies in rural markets, compared with relatively unchanged hiring growth in urban areas. He even sees this trend resulting in more jobs in rural areas.
“We get talent from the central and north-eastern region. With the quick-commerce penetration leading to a rise in logistics, there may be reverse migration in 2025 towards the smaller towns," he said.
Among the roles in demand in rural areas, that of a van sales representative is among the most popular. These are sales executives who double up as delivery executives. “This not only gives (FMCG companies) a low friction model to penetrate new rural markets but also helps variabilise the cost to an extent," said Ananthanarayanan.
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