Expensively Priced

The summer of 2014 was particularly hot for FMCG companies that were seeing input prices spike. Monsoons were no better as prices continued to hold up. It was not before October that input prices started cooling off. Some of the biggest falls were recorded in rice bran oil (down 11.4 per cent over the previous month), phtahlic anhydride (down 9.6 per cent), LLP (6.8 per cent) and copra (3.7 per cent). Consequently, some of the biggest gainers were Bajaj Corp, Dabur, Marico and Asian Paints. A number of other companies like Britannia, Hindustan Unilever and Nestle did not see their raw material prices cool down.