Recession 2019 & Indian fmcg sector.





What is recession ?

Recession is a temporary economic situation when economic activity  reduces or slow down. It is the temporary contraction of economic activity. Recession is the economic cycle when consumption or demand reduced and it adversely affects the complete economy. In simple words recession means low economic activity in the system. It is a macro economic scenario.
Consumer buys less products & services , as a result demands  reduces , less demands lead to lower production, lower production reduces job opportunity, low job opportunity reduces low income, low income leads to low purchasing . This is the complete cycle.
In India people are feeling about recession due to GDP growth come down to 5 % for first quarter  of 2019-2020. But only one quarter slow GDP growth cannot indicate economic slow down. We need to observe more 2 or 3 quarter .
Also we have two examples of economic slow down in India. 1.In first quarter automobile sector  sales volume down by 40 % in comparison to the same period last year . 2. Parle Biscuit is planning to reduce it’s employee by 10000.
Now lets understand point no 1.
People are saying that due to economic slowdown , automobile sales volume reduced by 40 % in quarter 1 in comparison to same period  in previous FY.
Now as of my understanding automobile sales drop may not be due to economic slowdown, but due to the expansion of Ola & Uber and all other online cab service. Before online cab service being started, people used to keep personal car in all the urban area. Every 3 or 4 people needed a car and maximum use in a day was appx 2 to 3 hours per day, rest of the time the car remained idle in parking place or garage.
Now the same car is moving throughout the day and carrying more than 50 passengers in a day. So it is obvious that requirement of car is less than before. Also Ola & Uber are the national players but there are local players in different small town in India. People are getting habituated with online car booking. With phone call or apps one can find a car in a short period.
 Also personal car maintenance & fuel cost  is expensive in comparison to hire a  cab. I don’t require to explain buying a car vs hiring a car, pls go to the link.
So it is the transformation of economic activity not the slow down.


Lets explain point no-2
Parle G biscuit  is planning to reduce their manpower due to economic slow down . But can you remember when did you purchased a parle-G biscuit last time ?
Definitely you can’t . Demands for Parle-G biscuit is reducing due to consumer taste change and not because of economic slow down.  Day by day consumers  are shifting to other category of biscuits. Even in rural area demands for Parle-G biscuit is declining .
In my another blog I have mentioned that , fmcg is recession proof sector, then why Parle is having such situation ?
First of all I mentioned fmcg as a whole sector not a single company. A single company may may loss their sell due to so many reasons but industry as a whole is less impacted by recession.

Again this is  temporary phenomena , due to pessimism in trade channel stock holding may reduce for short term. But nobody will stop buying biscuits or soap or any other daily required product due to economic slow down.

Further if there is economic slow down , then why Gillette India is growing by 11 % ?

Pls visit the link of economics times


So as of my understanding it is not the economic slow down which reduced the car sale, but due to expansion of online cab service. Again due to change in consumer behavior or taste , Parle Biscuit is in tough time .
I am not denying the fact that due to GST implementation a little slow down in trade & commerce, but it is temporary.
We can hope for the best.







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