See year-end growth at 10-12%; festive season to help: M&M

M&M anticipates year end growth to be in the realm of 10-12 percent, says Sanjeev Goyle, chief of marketing and business head, M&M. There has been a successive slowdown in growth in the months of June, July and August, but Goyle says it is because of the excessive rains in UP, Maharashtra and Bihar, which propelled farmers to stay away.

The company does not plan to offer any pricing discounts. He feels, September onwards, due to the festive season there will be buoyancy in the markets. Below is the verbatim transcript of Sanjeev Goyle's interview on CNBC-TV18 Q1: Let us start with this year on year growth that you have seen about 11-12 percent which is in line with the industry. Is that what is going to be the trend for the rest of the year as well?
A: Yes what we anticipate is that the year end growth would be in the realm of 10-12 percent and Mahindra and Mahindra actually has grown cumulative August by 22 percent. And for the month of August we had 9 percent growth. Q: There has been a slowdown in the pace of growth so in May you all grew by 24 percent, June it was at 18-19 percent, July was 14-15 percent and now you all have come down to 9 percent. Is that a trend we could expect in the coming few months as well that it will be growing but at a slower pace?
A: No not really. One important aspect of the growth slowing down marginally is also the excessive rain that has happened in parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra which has not contributed to the growth because what happens is typically the farmer finds it very difficult to access and he is more inside his house. Q: What about market share, going forward is that going to be at the level that you are or do you think you can eat up some market share?
A: Currently we are at 42 percent share and as a brand we would like to see how we can inch it up. Q: What about pricing, are you comfortable with the current pricing or do you see a scope for a bit of inch up?
A: Currently we don't have any plans of any increase in pricing. Q: Because in this month the pace of growth has slowed down a bit, will that hurt in any case your margins because last quarter your margins did very well. In fact it was at 16.7 versus about a 15.6. So what could you say about margins, going forward would you have to perhaps offer any kind of pricing discounts?
A: We don't anticipate any kind of pricing discounts to be offered in the coming months. What you have to appreciate is that September onwards is the festive season, we are already seeing the buoyancy in Maharashtra, Karnataka on account of Ganpati. There is Vishwakarma which is going to have an impact on Bihar and central UP and then of course we get into Navratri, Dassera and Diwali. So the markets overall should do very well and we should do well. Q: In the month of August it slipped by 25 percent plus even on year-to-date basis your exports are showing you a degrowth. What is the trajectory on exports, is FY14 going to be a year when exports fall by 8-10 percent?
A: I don't look after exports unfortunately so I would not be in a position to actually answer this question.