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Malted milk drinks, which are as much as one-third sugar, have been breakfast staples of upwardly mobile families in India since soldiers brought GlaxoSmithKline's Horlicks back with them after WW1   For a century, children in India have been brought up on malt-flavored powdered milk drinks that they thought would help make them healthy and strong. Now the $1 billion industry is set for a shake-up after two of the biggest producers, GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Kraft Heinz Co. put the businesses up for sale and consumers switch to drinks with less sugar. Malted milk drinks, which are as much as one-third sugar, have been breakfast staples of upwardly mobile families in India since soldiers brought GlaxoSmithKline’s  Horlicks  back with them after the First World War. Now, after a decade of double-digit growth, sales in India rose 8.6 per cent in 2017 and could drop to half that this year. By 2022, the market will expand by only 2.7 per cent, Euromonitor forecasts...

New a/c rules to hit FMCG firms' revenues Ind-AS, the new accounting standards that came into effect from April 1, might squeeze the revenues of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies by up to eight per cent in 2016-17. The key cause is deduction of sales promotion expenditure from the revenue figure, hitherto part of the profit & loss (P&L) statement under the earlier   IGAAP   accounting norms. In the just-concluded June quarter, for instance, the top line of the country's largest consumer goods company,   Hindustan Unilever   (HUL), was affected by 2.6 per cent or Rs 214 crore under Ind-AS. Godrej Consumer Products’ revenue was squeezed 10.4 per cent. Sunil Duggal, chief executive, Dabur India, said six to seven per cent of its FY17 revenue would be hit. “Some part of promotional expenditure, mainly below-line expenses, will be deducted from revenue, expected to be around Rs 600 crore,” he said. Vivek Karve, chief financial officer, Mari...

Patanjali Ayurved, co-founded by televangelist Ramdev, is targeting Rs 10,000-crore revenue in 2016-17, after sales grew 150 per cent in the previous financial year to Rs 5,000 crore. The revenue target, if achieved, will put Patanjali Ayurvedahead of multinationals like Nestle, Colgate-Palmolive andProcter & Gamble in India. Read more from our special coverage on " PATANJALI AYURVED " Patanjali to invest Rs 1,150 crore in FY17; eyes doubling revenue SEA to move FSSAI, ASCI against Patanjali mustard oil ad The new business tycoons Delhi-headquartered   Patanjali Ayurved   has four business divisions: home care, cosmetics and health, food and beverages, and health drinks. The company would venture into khadi products and animal feed this year, Ramdev said. Patanjali Ayurved, founded in 2007, has grown more than 10 times in revenue in five years, an unprecedented feat in India's fast-moving consumer goods industry. "This is just the beginning. Ne...

If cricket is a religion in India, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is a coliseum - the ultimate stage for the clash of the titans. In its ninth edition, the country's biggest and most successful sporting property is offering cricket lovers,advertisers and marketers an opportunity to pull their weight behind two new franchises - Gujarat Lions andRising Pune Supergiants (RPS). The debutants are up against established brands such as Kolkata Knight Riders(KKR), Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils who as first movers command a strong legacy and massive fan following. As late entrants, do   Gujarat Lions   and RPS have it in them to emerge as challenger brands and up the ante against veterans? What will it take for the rank outsiders to break through the clutter? Are there any brand managementlessons to be learnt from success stories scripted by late entrants in highly competitive markets like fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), mobiles and automobiles? "A late entrant has ...