ITC Aims for Leadership in Every Segment: Sanjiv Puri

New Delhi, Jan 19 (PTI) ITC is sharpening its competitiveness and strengthening innovative capacity under its "Next Strategy" as the multi-conglomerate aims to be a leader in the segments in which it operates, said its Chairman and Managing Director Sanjiv Puri.

The cigarettes-to-consumer goods conglomerate has articulated a strategy of the organisation, the 'ITC Next Strategy' aiming to shape a future-ready enterprise and define the next phase of growth and profitability, Puri told PTI.

As part of the ITC Next Strategy, it identified levers of competitiveness, which include digitalisation, sustainability, innovation and supply chain efficiency, among others for its future growth.

"These have been identified as areas where specific interventions have been made to become competitive and contemporary. The objective is to keep innovating while leveraging enterprise strengths," said Puri.

The idea is to be a leader and to be a very large-scale business, in which ITC has made "appreciable progress" in its ongoing journey over a period of time.

"For us, ITC's Next strategy is a journey in action. While we have made appreciable progress in many areas, I would not say that this journey is anywhere near completion. Our vision is to be a very large player in every segment that we operate in," said Puri.

He further added: "In some segments, we are already leaders. It is our goal to be a leader in every segment we operate in."

According to Puri, the world is now much more volatile and uncertain given the geo-political and geo-economic situation and the existential climate crisis.

"Given this context, we believe that a large and growing organisation like ours must remain nimble and consumer-centric, sharpening our competitiveness and strengthening our innovative capacity. To do that, we have created an organisation in which people have more ownership and are empowered with a fair degree of freedom and flexibility," he said.

ITC, an over Rs 70,000 crore group which operates in Cigarette to FMCG and agriculture, paper board to IT sector - has defined the portfolio strategy for the organisation, across its businesses.

"... We plan to keep on growing our core and growing the core itself is a mega opportunity in India, given the per capita incomes, the per capita consumption and also the penetration levels. The second piece is to address adjacencies, and thirdly, start creating categories of the future. The idea is to continuously contemporize and refresh while building the portfolio," said Puri.

Currently, cigarettes and FMCG segments contribute to over 70 per cent business of ITC, which had in July last year announced a Rs 20,000 crore investment plan in the medium-term as part of its Next Strategy.

In its paperboard business, the core is value-added paperboards, and ITC continues to invest in the category and added over 33 per cent capacity in the last few years.

"The adjacency identified in this business is around using paperboard to develop plastic substitutes through proprietary coatings. And the new vector of growth is sustainable packaging which uses plant-based moulded fibre," said Puri.

It recently commissioned a state-of-the-art moulded fibre plant near Sehore, Madhya Pradesh, which manufactures plant-based packaging in complex shapes.

Similarly, in FMCG, its second-largest business, ITC is leveraging its brand Aashirvad, which is over Rs 8,000 crore brand.

"In atta, we have differentiators such as multigrain atta. In adjacencies, we have offerings such as Aashirvaad frozen bread, vermicelli, besan, and ghee, among others. In foods, we are also developing categories for the future such as frozen snacks under ITC Master Chef. The idea is to continuously contemporise our portfolio and create newer drivers of growth," he said.

ITC has earlier this month demerged its hotel business into a separate entity and the date of listing of ITC Hotels Ltd is yet to be announced.