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Informist, Friday, Jun. 5, 2026

 

KOLKATA – At a time when nearly all fast-moving consumer goods companies are scaling up their distribution reach to maximise sales, Nestle India Ltd. said it achieved the highest growth among peers in terms of expanding its reach across geographies in the last financial year. The growth was primarily from increasing its sales coverage to rural locations.

 

In rural markets, Nestle India strengthened its route to market and accelerated reach through a focused approach anchored on infrastructure, product portfolio, technology, visibility, consumer communication and people. This integrated approach delivered a strong scale-up in reach across geographies, supporting the highest reach increase among industry peers, driven primarily by rural markets expanding presence to 216,000 villages and sharpening the focus from adding outlets to improving coverage effectiveness and execution quality, Nestle India said in its annual report for 2025-26 (Apr-Mar).

 

"Across India, aspirations are rising and, with them, expectations. Consumer preferences are shaped by region, culture, habit, life stage and occasion. That creates complexity, but also headroom for growth," Manish Tiwary, chairman and managing director of Nestle India, said in the annual report. "From the bustling streets of urban India to emerging semi-urban markets to rural India, taste preferences are embracing a repertoire of foods and flavours that are simultaneously traditional, local, fusion and international. It is our ambition to serve that diversity with creativity, consistency and quality that is uncompromising."

 

With over 10,000 distributors and re-distributors, Nestle has presence across 5.3 million retail outlets in the country, according to the annual report. 

 

After expanding its distribution reach in the hinterland, Nestle India's focus has now shifted towards enhancing the quality of coverage and driving more effective execution from just expanding store count. 

 

Its direct competitor, ITC Ltd., which makes the Yippee brand of instant noodles that directly competes with Nestle's Maggi brand of noodles, has also been stressing on "sweating existing sales channels" for quite some time now. Effectively, ITC is pushing more of its consumer goods portfolio from existing sales channels. For instance, a retailer who would sell only ITC's cigarettes is now selling confectionary, snacks and other items, including personal care items from the same outlet. 

 

During the year ended March, Nestle India leveraged technology as a key enabler to accelerate its business and strengthen rural execution. Deploying the industry's first distributor management solution enabled Nestle to automate sub-distributors, supporting channel partners and the secondary sales force across rural markets. This, in turn, facilitated acceleration of commercial investments and deeper engagement with retailers in rural markets, according to the annual report. 

 

"Our hubs in semi-urban and rural markets use NesMitra, Nestl's retailer self-ordering mobile application, to place orders conveniently, streamlining our route-to-market. With tech adoption on the rise, our brands are accessible in deep interior villages and challenging terrains," Tiwary said. "When used as a human ally, AI (artificial intelligence) can free people from the shackles of 'busy work' so they can focus on what matters most to consumers and delivers the best products and experiences."

 

NesMitra has now been rolled to general trade retailers as well to address salesman absenteeism and to enable better engagement with programme outlets, Nestle India said in the annual report.

 

For the March quarter, Nestle India's revenue increased 23% on year to INR 67.48 billion, and the net profit increased around 26% to INR 11.14 billion. On Friday, shares of Nestle India closed flat at INR 1,386.20 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

Reported by Avishek Rakshit

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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