Sachets set to face sack as retail goes for large packs

HYDERABAD/NEW DELHI: Modern retail could deal a severe blow to the ubiquitous sachet in urban pockets. The miniature packaging that completely transformed the fortunes of FMCG companies in the 90s, finds itself dwarfed in organised retail stores which have virtually no shelf space for the low-unit price takeaway.

Most organised retailers — and this includes even neighbourhood store chains — don’t want to stock them to avoid pilferage and inconvenience in display.

While sachets enticed the bottom of the pyramid market, it also offered value to the middle class in the form of convenience, hygiene and product trial options. In its heydays, the unique packaging format introduced products to a large customer base, which could afford, at any given point, only 10 ml of shampoo or one cup of tea or two biscuits or three pegs liquor.

As the Indian retail juggernaut rolls on, sachets fight for their pride of place in shop racks while they proudly hang from the corner pan/bunk store. Cavinkare founder C K Ranganathan, who pioneered the sachet revolution, told ET that the sachet format needs to reinvent itself to cater to organised retail. “We are working on a packaging to offer a carton of sachets, with an MRP, which will be easy for the retailers to stock and bill. I don’t think the sachet trend would die out."

For large players like Food Bazaar, sachet is an SKU which does not match with the purchasing pattern of its customers. “We are clearly a destination supermarket where people come for planned purchases. Sachets are meant for neighbourhood stores,’’ says Damodar Mall, CEO of Food Bazaar. However, even the small-format stores find there are hurdles to handle this stock keeping unit.