Interested in entering pesticides biz: Arumugham Mahendran

After stepping down as MD of Godrej Consumer Products four months ago, Arumugham Mahendran is back to doing what he knows best that is building brands.

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Mahendran says: "I feel quite thrilled about - I feel I am totally unfettered. I am looking at how we build brands for my personal family businesses. Now in that area I am looking at food and beverages which is of considerable interest to me."

He is also looking at the pesticide business and the sector as a whole to enter as an entrepreneur.

Below is the verbatim transcript of Arumugham Mahendran's interview on CNBC-TV18

Q: I understand that you are floating a pesticide venture.

A: I would like to enter the pesticide business and I am looking at how that sector is doing etc. whether I can as an entrepreneur enter that sector again.

Q: What challenges do you foresee going ahead as you build up these two businesses in these turbulent times?

A: If you select a sector and there is a matured level of competition there, so the competitive challenges will be there but I have been getting challenged for the last 25 years by multinationals in India and even outside. So, I do not see any issue but it could be the competitive challenge.

Q: We have been seeing FMCG players doing rather badly in the last four quarters especially. Unilever’s global management has gone ahead and said that they are experiencing the worst kind of slowdown in emerging markets and in India also they are going to see a very slow volume growth in the coming quarters. So, why are you so upbeat about the FMCG space at this point?

A: I do not agree at all. The consumption story particularly in FMCG is a fairly defensive sector.