FMCG companies hire in small towns to fire up growth

Small towns are emerging as the new big hiring zones, as consumer goods companies drive deep into the country. Companies are hiring field staff in areas like Kalpa in Himachal Pradesh, Mangaliya in Madhya Pradesh, Kota in Rajasthan and Shirdi in Maharashtra to sell products as diverse as shampoos, edible oil and even pizzas.

The triggers are a combination of a good monsoon this year, farm-loan waivers, higher disposable incomes in rural India, media penetration, low-priced unit packs of 5 and 10 and government programmes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

Consumer goods giant Hindustan Unilever is hiring 25,000 ‘shaktimaans,’ or sales and field staff, to sell its products in nearly 1.5 lakh villages, while Dabur India intends to hire 200 ‘feet on street’ and indirect employees through its stockists in villages and small towns.

“Our share of top line from semi-urban and rural markets is touching almost 50%. Naturally, we are looking at these consumers very closely,” says Dabur’s vice president-HR V Krishnan.

Marico has just finished hiring a support staff of 220 in towns like Kalod and Rangwasa in Madhya Pradesh. Fast-food company Domino’s plans to hire 1,000 employees in cities like Ranchi, Kota and Gangtok in the next 12 months. Others like ITC, Nestle, GlaxoSmithKline and Emami are talking of doubling their direct employee strength in small towns and villages.

Hindustan Unilever intends to triple its rural coverage to 15% in 2010. It is hoping the plan to hire ‘shaktimaans’ will help it sell products like Pepsodent toothpaste and Wheel detergent, which are losing share to rivals and smaller players in big towns and metros.

“WE have embarked on an enormous coverage expansion project, facilitated by digital maps, to identify potential markets to be brought under direct coverage,” says an HUL spokesman.

Of the million outlets across India the company directly covers, 0.25 million are in rural areas. Shaktimaans , who are already at work in Orissa, will distribute products to villages adjoining an earmarked ‘Shakti’ village. Villages are tracked through a geographical information system, and the employees have been given bicycles. HUL’s Project Shakti had tapped 45,000 rural women (Shakti ammas) in 2000. Now, it is wooing the men in the families to turn into shaktimaan entrepreneurs.

Dabur has already hired 150-180 additional ‘foot soldiers’ over the past 12 to 15 months. It has also increased the number of stockists by 11-12 % in rural and semiurban markets, who in turn, are serviced by superstockists in big cities. The company will sharpen its focus on small towns and villages in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Punjab and Haryana, with a population of at least 3,000. “We will ramp up our field force depending on the increase in business volumes,” says Mr Krishnan.


From: The Economic Times