After more than four decades at Wipro, Vineet Agrawal is preparing to retire next month as chief executive officer of Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting and managing director of Wipro Enterprises. As he does, Agrawal is clear-eyed about the challenge ahead for the homegrown FMCG business: it remains a “fairly small” player and must grow across multiple categories to scale faster.
With interests spanning personal care, home care and domestic lighting—and a recent push into packaged foods—Agrawal said India’s low category penetration offers significant headroom for growth. While Wipro Consumer’s debt-free balance sheet gives it room to pursue acquisitions, these will be selective and strategic, he said, adding that organic growth will remain the core driver.
The company has already begun building its foods portfolio. In 2023, it announced plans to acquire Kerala-based packaged foods brand Brahmins, following the acquisition of Kerala’s Nirapara a year earlier—marking its entry into spices and ready-to-cook foods.
The maker of Santoor soap reported revenues of ₹10,625 crore in 2024–25, a 3.4% year-on-year increase. Edited excerpts from an interview with Mint follow.
How has the FMCG landscape changed over the span of your career, and where do you see it headed?
There has been huge change. Channels have evolved from only general trade to modern trade, e-commerce, and now quick commerce. Media has also fragmented. We once had very few advertising channels; today, there are many, making media planning far more complex.
Consumer expectations have risen sharply. With television and e-commerce penetration, rural expectations are now similar to urban. Categories that were once urban-focused are now expanding into rural markets because awareness and access have improved. E-commerce, in particular, has widened product access significantly.
You’ve stepped up investments in packaged foods. Is Wipro Consumer positioning itself as a full household-consumption company?
We are still fairly small, so we need to look at multiple sectors to grow fast — personal care, home care, foods. We cannot rely on a single category. We need to launch products well and gain share across all of them.
India offers enormous headroom. Penetration levels in several categories are still very low. Fabric conditioner penetration is barely 4% of households, yet we are the number two player, which shows how underdeveloped the category is. Hand-wash is another example—it is a small business at around ₹200 crore for us, yet we are also number two there. These categories can grow sharply, which is why the India growth story is so compelling.
Why has foods become a sharper focus over the past two to three years?
Foods is not being pursued at the cost of other businesses. It is a separate growth engine. The category itself is very large. Toilet soaps in India are a ₹26,000–27,000 crore market, while spices are around ₹70,000 crore. Snacks are another ₹70,000 crore category.
Even gaining share in a few states can translate into meaningful scale. There is also a clear shift from unorganised to organised players in foods, and we believe we can play a strong role in that transition.
What will drive growth—organic expansion, acquisitions or investments?
We are fortunate to be a strong cash-generating organisation with a debt-free balance sheet, so capital has never been a constraint for us. We generate operating margins of around 13% every year, which translates into ₹1,200–1,300 crore of cash annually. Since we do not pay out dividends, this gives us a healthy war chest to pursue opportunities.
That said, acquisitions will remain strategic rather than opportunistic. They are not meant merely to add revenue, but to help us enter categories or geographies faster. For example, the acquisition of Canway in South Africa in 2020 gave us a foothold in Africa, and that business has grown threefold since FY20. In foods, entering spices organically would have taken a long time, which is why acquiring Brahmins and Nirapara gave us immediate presence in spices and ready-to-cook breakfast products in Kerala.
Organic growth, however, remains the foundation. The board will not back us if we fail to deliver on that. Acquisitions are incremental. This year, our star performers have been Santoor hand-wash and fabric conditioners.
What is the ambition for the next 5–10 years?
We don't give specific numbers for 3–5 years out. But we always say we must grow significantly faster than the industry—in all geographies and all categories.
There is huge headroom for consumption growth in India and Southeast Asia. The sky is the limit, per capita consumption can go up and we must remain ambitious and grow disproportionately.
How does 2026 look in terms of demand—volumes versus pricing?
This quarter looks like a strong volume-growth quarter. We are hoping for high single-digit volume growth in India, and possibly double-digit growth if conditions remain favourable. Volumes are clearly coming back.
It is difficult to pinpoint a single reason—GST cuts, a good monsoon and income-tax benefits may all be contributing. There is visible positivity this quarter, and we hope it sustains. The Santoor brand today generates between ₹2,500 crore and ₹2,900 crore across soaps, body lotions and related products.
September was a tough quarter for many companies because of GST changes? How did it pan out for you?
All in all, it has been reasonably good. Most people struggled in September because of the GST changes. But we managed the transition reasonably well. Our India FMCG business grew by about 9.3% in the September quarter. For Q3, we are hoping to do high single-digit volume growth. Things are looking positive, and the GST transition is behind us.
What are you seeing in rural versus urban demand?
Urban lower-income consumers continue to face more stress compared to other segments. While it is still early to quantify, over the last few quarters, urban poor have been under greater pressure than rural consumers or the urban affluent.
What are the biggest tailwinds for India’s consumption story?
Per capita consumption in India remains low. Even in a mature category like toilet soaps, urban per capita usage is nearly three times that of rural areas. If consumption shifts toward hand-wash, fabric conditioners or packaged foods, the headroom is enormous.
Secondly, consumers want better products and upgraded lifestyles. Third, we have seen good GDP growth numbers, good monsoon, GST rate cuts, income-tax benefits have been passed on which is all helping to support demand. Overall, the India growth story is immense.