Due to the growing concern of leading fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies like Hindustan Unilever, Godrej, Dabur and Proctor & Gamble on the discrepancies in its retail audit data, Nielsen, the consumer goods research company, is planning to widen the base of its service.
The research house currently covers approximately 16,700 stores in its retail audit of 80 categories of consumer packaged goods (CPG), representing the national retail footprint of approximately 7.5 million stores.
Earlier this year, the company had released its audit reports for April to May 2009, based on the revised census of 2006 to 2008. The industry growth estimates had dropped to 16 per cent from the 19 per cent growth the sector saw in financial year 2008-09. According to the latest study by Nielsen, FMCG major HUL continued to lose marketshare in toilet soaps, toothpastes, skin care, detergent cakes and shampoos.
In its new proposal, the company plans to increase its coverage to include Army Canteens (CSD), which account for 4 to 5 per cent of the CPG business, schools and college canteens, as they impact the impulse categories, cover hot tea shops, non-carbonated soft drinks, biscuits, salty snacks, entertainment points and highways, which are all very small contributors to the CPG industry.
The plans also include increasing the modern retail footprint, which currently covers 60 per cent of the trade, to over 80 per cent.
“We will submit our new proposal to the FMCG advisory council in mid-August and following the clearance, the implementation will start immediately and the results will be seen in a year,” said Partha Rakshit, managing director, South Asia, The Nielsen Company. It is important, he said, “for us to have an apple to apple comparison while comparing the manufacturers’ internal shipment data with our retail store audit data.”
Addressing concerns over accuracy of its data, Radhika Chandok, Executive Director, Retail Measurement Services - Product Leader, South Asia, The Nielsen, said: “We have an 88 per cent coverage in India. At the country level, our reports have a standard error margin of less than 1.5 per cent, lower than the accepted norm of less than 4 per cent internationally.”