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Informist, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025

 

--Tata Consumer: In talks with Tata 1mg for distribution partnership

--Tata Consumer: Hope to finalise distribution deal with Tata 1mg by Nov-end

--Tata Consumer: Will distribute Tata 1mg products via pharmacies

--Tata Consumer: Will distribute only non-competing Tata 1mg products

 

By Avishek Rakshit

 

KOLKATA - Tata Consumer Products Ltd. is in talks with group company Tata 1mg to distribute the latter's products to pharmacies, Sunil D'Souza, managing director and chief executive officer of the company, told Informist. This would help the company open new avenues to grow its top line by sweating its sales channels, he said.

 

"They (Tata 1mg) have a lot of products in their portfolio but they don't have offline distribution. We could be their offline (distribution) partner. So, we're running a few pilots to test that out," D'Souza.

 

Tata Consumer Products currently reaches 25,000 pharmacies in the country across 40 cities selling its products. Though D'Souza feels the company first needs to attain certain operational scale before expanding this sales channel further, Tata Consumer may look to increase the portfolio of products it sells in pharmacies.

 

If the talks are successful, which D'Souza is optimist about, the distribution rollout will start from end of November itself. Asked about the product range of Tata 1mg that Tata Consumer Products will be distributing, D'Souza said, "It has to be non-competing. It is those where we are not going to enter in a long, long, time."

 

Although Tata 1mg, a digital healthcare platform that provides a range of services such as booking diagnostic tests and online doctor consultations, it also sells and delivers medicines from other manufacturers and drug companies through online orders. Recently, it also forayed into pet-care products and now sells medicines and supplements for pets as well.

 

Tata 1mg, which was acquired by the Tata group in 2021, also has its own range of products such as vitamins and supplements, healthcare devices, personal hygiene, food and nutrition, and several other products. However, all of these products are sold only online and are not available in brick-and-mortar drug stores.

 

"We are running a few pilots right now to figure out what works and what does not. We're fairly confident of the pilots being successful. So, therefore, you'll see a national rollout once we say yes," D'Souza said.

 

Tata Consumer is also planning to put most of its products for sales via drug stores. "Pharmacy sells cold coffee, coffee, mineral water, low sodium salt, cereals. So, I've got a bunch of things in my portfolio, which I can launch in the pharmacy channel," he said.

 

Tata Consumer Products has a strong presence in tea and food products that are mostly sold through grocery stores and online, including quick commerce platforms, and the company has rolled out a new sales channel targeting pharmacy stores from April.

 

"I would say we're about six months away from seeing a strong, stable system (pharmacy sales channel)," D'Souza said.

 

Tata Consumer Products will focus on maintaining and servicing the current size of its new sales channel that is mainly focussed on urban areas, till it achieves a certain scale of operations.

 

In the Apr-Sept period, Tata Consumer Products' revenue increased nearly 14% on year to INR 97.35 billion and profit increased nearly 13% on year to INR 7.4 billion. Shares of Tata Consumer Products closed marginally higher at INR 1,157.80 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

Edited by Ashish Shirke

 

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