Show goes on, but retailers find the going tough

MUMBAI: The continuous rains in Mumbai are disrupting fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) stockists’ and fast food chains supplies, while on the other hand, the city’s multiplexes are seeing higher occupancy levels and a 5-7% increase in food and beverage (F&B) sales.

The corner shops in Mumbai’s suburbs like Kandivali, Borivali and Vashi are losing out on about Rs 5,000 to 7,000 worth of business every day due to non-availability of products like biscuits, noodles, and other packaged foods and a delivery delay in milk, bread and eggs among other bakery and dairy products.

In South Mumbai, many shop owners either did not open at all or closed right after lunch because of rising demand and absence of basic food items and groceries. “Since the past three days, we are running into loses of Rs 10,000 to 12,000 per day because of the lack of supplies. We had kept a surplus of packaged foods, but as dairy products are supposed to be fresh, we have not been able to stock enough to last the rains,” said a South Mumbai-based retailer.

The Pizza Hut and Domino’s outlets in South Mumbai stopped serving certain items on their menu during lunch hour. “We asked people to wait for some time because we had run out of cheese and ice cream as our supplies usually arrive in the morning from Mulund (a Mumbai suburb). We managed to stock up by 4 pm when the roads cleared a bit,” said a Pizza Hut spokesperson.

Domino’s managed to get their supplies in order by evening, but had to turn down delivery orders during lunch time, while McDonald’s did not face any shortages. Cafe Coffee Day and Barista were able to top up their stocks early in the evening, and hence did not lose most of their customers. Smaller restaurants and cafes in most parts of town were closed either because staff members did not turn up or lack of supplies.

While the rains lashed on, the entertainment industry at large seemed unaffected barring minor hiccups. Multiplex owners had reason to be happy. “While normally week days prove to be lean periods with an overall occupancy of 25-35%, occupancy levels in the last two days went up to 45%. In fact night shows were nearing full occupancy. The F&B segment also witnessed a spike of about 5-7% with hoards of people either choosing to watch a film, play games or simply hang out,” said a Cinemax spokesperson.

Television shooting sets witnessed some marginal damages but an immediate quick-fix repair worked, and kept the sets intact. Shooting schedules went haywire for a bit, but most resumed shooting in the night when the water levels receded.

Last year’s deluge saw pharmaceutical companies unprepared to deal with the situation of increased demand for medicines, partly because they had lost significant amount of stocks due to flooding at their warehouses and also because they had not anticipated the scale of the public health crisis, the situation had created.

This year, however, the industry is confident of being able to cater to the needs of consumers. Industry officials told ET that this year companies have not suffered any damage to stocks so far because of the rains that lashed the city over the last few days.

“We do have sufficient stocks at various levels — stockists, depots and warehouses — to take care of any situation that may arise over the next few days,” a spokesperson of a leading domestic pharmaceutical company told ET.

Companies have increased the inventory of products that are in high demand during the monsoons. These include anti-biotics, cough and cold preparations and drugs for diarrhoea and gastro-enteritis. Industry officials say it is unnecessary for consumers to go on a panic-buying spree of medicines, especially of anti-biotics like doxycycline.