Mumbai: The growing competition between Patanjali and other FMCG brands in India may intensify into an ugly spat with Baba Ramdev openly hitting out at HUL, Nestle and others recently.
Taking a dig at these brands at the Globoil India 2017 conclave, Baba Ramdev said “What are foreign companies doing for India? What has Hindustan Unilever done for Hindustan, what gate has Colgate opened, and what birds has Nestlé given flight to?”.
This episode comes days after HUL and Reckitt Benckiser (RB) dragged Patanjali to the court over “disparaging” advertisements. These companies sought an “ad interim injunction” against Patanjali for its soap commercial that claimed: “Filmstars ke chemical bhare sabun na lagao" (Don’t use the chemical-loaded soaps filmstars use). Criticising Pears, it made a hostile pun saying, “'Tears’ badhaye fears" (Tears increases fears).
According to a report in DNA, this aggressive nature of criticism continued at the Globoil India 2-17 conclave, where the yoga guru also said that the company is capable of toppling over these brands. "We have done shirshasan of many large companies. Only Unilever is left,” he said.
He also added that the Rs 1000 crore-FMCG brand will soon venture into the apparel and dairy market. "The total market size (of these two categories) will be Rs20 lakh crore. We will enter both within this year", he said.
Patanjali has evolved from a brand offering Ayurvedic medicines to one that houses every little thing one uses in their daily lives. Its range of herbal products at affordable prices has reportedly disrupted the FMCG market by shooting ahead of big players like HUL, RB, Colgate, etc.
