A. We reported 9% growth in topline (net of exited businesses) and 11% EBITDA growth. Despite inflation in the Foods business and higher investments in our brands and in new businesses, we delivered an expansion in margins. Therefore, since the formation of Tata Consumer, across the two pandemic years, we have now delivered 15% and 16% revenue and EBITDA CAGR, respectively. We have also had strong cash conversion, with free cash flow at nearly 100% of EBITDA.

During the year, the India business grew 13% and we gained market share of c.100 bps and 400 bps in core categories of Tea and Salt, respectively. Our growth businesses - NourishCo, Tata Sampann, Tata Soulfull, and Tata Q, collectively grew 52%. We are investing in these businesses to fuel them further. We continued to premiumise the portfolio – for example, value-added salts continued to outpace the base salt growth. We opened 50 new Tata Starbucks stores in 2022, taking the total to 268 across 26 cities.

Our International business saw modest like-for-like growth. However, that came on the back of double-digit growth last year. In terms of profitability, the International business is EBITDA accretive and generates stable cashflow and we will continue to drive further efficiencies there. Our Coffee business in the US is seeing stable market share and we are following a three-brand strategy in tea for international markets with Tetley, Good Earth, and teapigs. We are also strengthening our portfolio in fruit and herbal and specialty teas to find new sources of growth.

A. Our new businesses grew strongly over the past year. Under Tata Sampann, we recorded a 28% volume growth with broad-based growth across pulses, spices, and other staples. Poha grew north of 100%. We also entered the dry fruits category under Sampann, as part of our premiumisation efforts. In the Ready-to-drink Beverages business, i.e., NourishCo, we grew revenues by 83%, led by an 80% expansion in distribution and strong offtake across brands. We have a very unique proposition in Tata Soulfull to address the growing consumer need for health and wellness. We are now focused on driving both accessibility through expanded distribution, and affordability through value packs to jump shift this business .

A. There are some secular trends shaping the consumer landscape in India - rising disposable incomes, increasing urbanisation, and the democratisation of the internet means that awareness levels are very high. These trends are leading to consumers seeking better quality and trusted brands with increased convenience. The pandemic has further accelerated digital adoption and has also brought health and wellness front and centre for consumers. While these are some of the secular trends that will play out over the medium to long term, we are closely monitoring the near-term trends to see how inflation and other economic headwinds could affect consumer behaviour.

We are responding to these shifts proactively to make sure that we remain consumer-centric in our approach and capitalise on emerging opportunities.

A. Our efforts of having channel-specific strategies are yielding results. E-commerce as a % of sales in India was 7.3% in FY 21-22, up from 2.5% when we started in FY 2019-20. Modern trade crossed the INR 1,000 crore mark for the first time during the year. We continued to expand and enhance our S&D network and achieved our year-end target of 1.3 million outlets in direct reach. We also deployed a salesforce dedicated to the premium portfolio. To expand our reach in markets beyond the metros and urban centres, we have increased the number of rural/semi-urban distributors by 4X in our network

It is important to remember that Tata Consumer was formed to fulfill the FMCG aspirations of the Tata Group. We will continue to leverage the trust that the brand inspires, expand our portfolio and increase our footprint to reach more consumers in India. Currently, we reach over 201 million+ households in India and distribute to over 2.6 million outlets. There is a significant opportunity for us to grow our wallet share, shelf share, and business share besides growing those numbers.

A. We made substantial progress against our six strategic priorities of accelerating core business, driving digital and innovation, unlocking synergies, creating a future-ready organisation, exploring new opportunities, and embedding sustainability. You will read about these in greater detail across this Report.

In a nutshell, we are strengthening our core businesses of Salt and Tea by expanding distribution, investing in our brands, accelerating innovation, and driving premiumisation across categories. The A&P investments in India saw an increase of 29% last year and we took concrete steps towards simplifying and consolidating our brand architecture in the Tea business. As a result of our efforts to drive premiumisation, there was significant growth in value-added variants in Tea and Salt. We are expanding our presence and our direct reach is poised to reach 1.5 million outlets in the next year. I have already spoken about the focus we have on new and alternate channels.

We continued our innovation momentum, with the launch of new products across categories in India as well as international markets, resulting in the contribution of innovation to sales going up 2X during the year. We are now working on transforming our supply chain to unlock efficiencies and make it future-ready. Digitalisation across the value chain and organisation is well underway.

We are adding new levers of growth and to that end, we acquired Tata SmartFoodz Ltd to foray into the value added, fast growing, Ready-to-Eat (RTE) category. We believe there are a lot of synergies on the back and front end, which we will leverage to grow this business.

Finally, we are reorganising our business, to simplify the structure and reduce the number of legal entities, in order to create focused verticals, enable faster execution, and unlock significant financial value in the process

A. This is not something that is an add-on for us. It is embedded in the way we think, in our value system and culture. Of course, the focus is now sharper, and more integrated, with consumers and other stakeholders beginning to value their association with organisations and brands that are responsible. We are focusing on responsible sourcing with partners such as Trustea and Rainforest Alliance. We are reducing our environmental footprint by ensuring that more than a quarter of the energy for the India supply chain now comes from renewables. We are also placing emphasis on the circular economy of packaging. We are one of the founding members of the India Plastics Pact and are also members of the UK Plastics Pact and the Europe Plastics Pact. We are doing our part in mitigating climate change.

Our community investments continue to focus on critical issues spanning healthcare, education and skill development for vulnerable groups. Our employees across the Company contributed to serving the community by participating in volunteering programmes. As a purpose-led organisation, we are imbibing global best practices to make Tata Consumer a great place to work. We are strengthening diversity and inclusion through initiatives such as health insurance for the partners of employees of the LGBTQ+ community and the launch of the Women’s Inclusion Network. Nearly a third of all our open positions for external hiring were filled by women last year. We are also taking multiple steps to foster employee health and well‑being, through initiatives such as the Caregivers Support Programme (CUSP) for expecting parents, and counseling and awareness building for holistic health.

Our governance standards are best in class and guide our strategy and the way we do business, and we are constantly improving our policies and practices where needed.

A. Today’s macro environment is highly volatile in the short term with geopolitical tensions, supply chain stress and inflation impacting almost every business around the globe. We will be monitoring the global situation and inflation closely and put in practical and adequate mitigating measures. On a positive note, we are in the staples business and hence relatively better positioned to ride out these speed bumps. We also have a plethora of initiatives to drive growth and create efficiencies that can enable cost optimisations. These factors give me the confidence that will be able to deliver profitable growth notwithstanding the impact of the operating environment.

A. We remain committed to our ambition of becoming a top-ranking, FMCG player, and all our efforts are centred around that.

With a strong foundation in place, we will continue to execute on our strategic priorities and accelerate our growth momentum. Innovation, supply chain optimisation and digitalisation will be focus areas for the year ahead. We will continue to strengthen our sales and distribution across traditional as well as modern channels. We will focus on simplifying our business both in India as also International to drive further efficiencies and synergies.

We are in the early stages of our growth story, with tremendous runway ahead of us. We will continue to build on the strong initiatives that are in place while exploring new opportunities and enhancing our future readiness.

I am very grateful to all our shareholders for your belief and trust in this journey and look forward to your continued support.