 Welcome Mr. Arora to this webinar, thanks for your time. My first question to you is, as we know we are all dealing with tough times, and has serving customers taken on a new meaning altogether for grants? How do you see connecting with customers in these times? Good afternoon and thank you very much for having me here. I hope everyone who is joining here is safe and healthy and all your near ones and dear ones are in good health and in safe space, most of you working from home. It's my pleasure to be here. Coming on to your question, I think all brands try to meet the consumer needs to the best of their ability. However, it's time like these that a lot of these brands, a lot of these beliefs get tested and the situation is such that the fundamentals of the situation have changed. The relevance of some of the brands have been questioned and it's while it is very temporary in HR, very current situation, but I would say that each brand is trying to the best of its ability to address the consumer needs. A lot of brands have found trying to give meaning which is in relevance of today's requirement. For example, the hygiene brands obviously are finding that they are more relevant for today's needs. Consumers are seeking them out more. There are other brands which were offering nutrition and were close to immunity have been able to reach out. So obviously this is a situation which is, each brand is finding how to be more relevant in the current state that it is in. I want to just announce that we're also live on FB and we will be taking live questions on Zoom and Facebook. So you can post your questions there and keep on tweeting using hashtag E for them. My next question is about brands are not only trying to service unprecedented demand in some categories, maybe in yours. There's an unprecedented demand and while others are just trying to keep the lights on, they're struggling in these times. So tell me in the last few weeks, what has the story of Zidus been? Has it been unprecedented demand or reshuffling, re-strategizing, what has it been like? So last one month or so has been extremely busy. I think what's really happening is the speed of change that has happened in the environment in this country is absolutely, it got most people unprepared, it got all the brands completely not very ready to what we were going to face. A lot of estimations were done, what's going to happen and how we react to it. So I think it's a situation where you cannot be prepared for what's going to come our way and what's going to come our way for next probably six to eight weeks. I've seen and fortunately for us, we have a white portfolio where we have brands that are finding a lot of favor with the consumer because they are high level of relevance and there are products and brands which have taken a little bit of backseat if I were to say. So what's really happening is there are brands like we had in our consumer work planned that in 2021, we would launch a sanitizer and a nice brand. In fact, we had a series of innovations planned around NICEL last year when we got the brand and we had planned a series of innovations and team was working on it. And we planned it out in 2021 and we decided to fast forward it based on what we saw as a demand coming up for sanitizer and we said we must participate at this stage rather than wait for another year to get in. So we had our mix back, brands like this where we actually launched in 12 days, we were taking a decision, we had nothing ready on the table except for the decision and actually producing in the plant 12 days and it's a crazy amount of work that the team worked while sitting at home or whatever they were able to do. The technology has proved you can do so much today. So we've had a mix back, so we've had a very fast moment on some of the products which are very relevant. If I look at say sugar-free, we look at look on D or a Complan or a Sanitizer, they're very relevant for the consumers. It took us some time for a week 10 days before we were back to normal business and we've been able to move some of these things, these brands. However, there are certain personal care brands which have taken a back seat and rightly so because right now they're relevant, their demand is much lower. So we've had a mix back but at the end of it what we are looking for is that consumers have a certain requirement, certain need right now. Can I fulfill in a positive way as quickly as possible and I think we've been able to fairly successfully reach out to them and we've used a lot of I would say digital media to get our way there to reach out to consumers for some of these brands. Actually all the brands are operating without the roadmap. They never knew that this is going to happen and they had to deal with it. But do you think most of the brands or the brands in your category have kind of managed to see the road ahead to some extent? Is there some kind of, it's been few weeks, kind of clarity that is visible now for brands to chalk out a future strategy? So I have a fundamental belief that strategies don't change month to month and week to week or a quarter to quarter. Strategies is long term. So what's really happening is that on a normal ongoing basis, each brand has a certain set of assumption and a strategy. You work based on those assumptions and you plan your executions. I'm going to launch this. I'm going to advertise this. This is the business that will come. Now, this is last four weeks have shown that all your assumptions can go completely wrong. That you will have a certain kind of demand that will be there. There will be a certain kind of media, certain kind of consumption will be there. So those assumptions have gone completely out of the discussion and a new set of environment has emerged. This has forced a lot of brands to relook at, are we on the right path? Should we be doing the same things as we had planned or should we relook at what we're doing? And yes, it is an unprecedented time. But to my mind, if you're anchored on the real long term consumer benefits, chances are you will be relevant. If not now, over a period of time, you will be able to come back. And therefore, altering your brand strategies is a much larger call that one will have to take. But do I need to change my execution, my short term plans? Yes, each brand has to relook at it. Now, whether it is some of the high consumption spaces like biscuits or some other essential food items, their opportunity is much bigger. They have to react very quickly, whether at the back end or at the front end and how do they reach out to the consumers? Or certain personal care, high value items which are very occasional in requirement and skincare needs or should I say cosmetics, which get used occasionally. Now, those occasions are not going to happen. So they obviously have to go back to the drive board and say, okay, I need to redraw my plans, relook at what is the environment I'm dealing with and how long will it last. So obviously, each brand will have to find its own solution. Many of the brands will have to plan, now relook at things week to week, fortnight to fortnight and probably month to month and redraw their execution strategies. But having said that, I don't think from a medium term to long term point of view, there is fundamentally anything broken from the brands point of view because brands are built around real consumer needs. And I'm talking about good large brands. Obviously, if something is not built around those, those will get shattered. People, brands which have not understood the consumer trends in the past will get shaken much more. But I'm saying if the brand is done enough amount of homework, it's built around the real reasons. I think those will hold on over a medium and long term. You may have to go back to the drive board and see what do I do in next few weeks and months to stay relevant, to stay in business so that I have a long term too. But that's really what this situation is. Over a longer term, I think most brands will find a way to recover back. Of course, this is an opportunity for certain brands to also relook at their market shares. It will also be a test on the organizations to demonstrate what is their agility to respond to the pandemic, in fact the environment. And there may be a recast of certain kind of pecking order of the brands who respond better and brands who don't respond better to the environment. So therefore, again, I'm saying that will be back to how well you execute, how well you read the environment and how well you are responding to consumer sensitivity. I just want to mention that we are also live on F3 and you can post your questions on Zoom and you can tweet using hashtag EforM webinar. My next question is that some products, especially in your category, despite whatever we are witnessing, are some brands feeling safer than other brands because they are in a particular category? And second, you briefly touched upon addressing consumer needs. For example, you are manufacturing sanitizers now. So in terms of product category also, how is Zidus quickly trying to adjust to the changing times? What all do we see in that space as well? So yes, there are certain categories. I think you picked it up very well. The fact that sanitizers is a category which needs are much higher and we are clearly seeing a good pull there and we were very quick to move to that situation. And there are other brands. I mean, the fact is that nutrition needs are consistent, whether you are at home or you're working or I'm going to school at home. So some of our nutrition brands are back on a consistent path and I don't think there's much to worry or a sweetener. But there will be clearly challenges for skincare and personal care spaces which are under pressure at this point in time because the consumption has taken a beating in those situations. So what we are trying to do is and the way we have reworked the whole plans are that we are obviously supporting brands more aggressively which have more relevance for today. It's extreme summer right now. So brands like Nuconde and Isil will be relevant. Yes, people are going out less. So there's going to be a less requirement of those, but that's okay. I think we'll have to deal with it. But the fact is that they are topical in nature. They are the requirement of today. So these brands are showing traction as we would anticipate they would. And similarly, we're working on... I mean, we continue to support the brands like Punkland, Sugar Free, because we see a consistent traction. People need sugar, sweeteners, etc. on a daily basis. So we believe there will be continued traction. There was a brief time and I think it's still there, demand and supply is divided. As far as your products are concerned, how are you kind of stocking up on those? Because the consumers definitely need to have these products available as well, loyal ones. So are you looking at any special distribution offering at the moment so that the needs are met? Could you just speak? I didn't get it. Okay, so the distribution and product distribution was hugely impacted in between earlier. So how are your products in place? Do we have enough, do the consumers have enough access to them? Are you setting any special centers, distribution centers for them? Because the lockdown has made some of the products unavailable which they may have used. How are you looking at the situation? Okay, let me explain to you what's really happening and what are we doing about it. First of all, what's happened is with this lockdown which has lasted almost now four weeks, more than four weeks, there is a gap in the whole supply chain across the country. While the government is trying pretty hard and has supported all the companies, but there is clearly a breakdown in certain parts of the supply chain. It has progressively got better. We still find some challenges in the supply chain, but we're finding that the demand has been consistent where consumers are seeking out products. However, we are not able to fulfill the demand. I'm saying consumer product companies as a group are not able to fulfill and there are outlets which have run out of stocks. Over a period of time as the time is passing and the government is making efforts to help the supply chain happen, we've seen a certain kind of pullback of products back into the shelves, at least in the top outlets, a large number of outlets. We've been able to open up our warehouses, a lot of our distribution points have started opening up and that is helping us reach out to consumers much better. Clearly, I see a significant improvement in the whole supply chain. What is also happening from our side is we've also used this time to go back to the drawing board and see what can I do differently in this environment to ensure that I am able to meet the demand supply gap that really exists in the market. We've gone back to our partners in e-commerce. We've helped them ensure that we can ramp up our supply to them directly. We have today a much higher supply to e-commerce than earlier from a direct to from the company. Similarly, if I look at Montrade, we've engaged with the Montrade as well. The fact that we've worked with them to ensure that our products are better stocked, specifically the lead products that have good traction. How can we ensure we are better connected? We have a constant dialogue with them. Thirdly, which is a much larger access point today is obviously the Kirana stores and the chemists. What we've done is we've put, we've hired specifically additional vehicles dedicated for our supply chain to ensure that we can fulfill this demand. Plus, we've done several other routes like tele-calling to the Kiranas and servicing this requirement. So we are trying all the parts, e-commerce, Montrade and directly with the Kiranas to fulfill that demand. We've seen good improvement over the, I mean, on a sequential basis, every four to five days I see a substantial improvement. We are getting closer to a normal situation. So as somebody who represents a very strong brand, tell me what happened in the key learnings from this lockdown for brands if you have to sum up maybe two or three big learnings from this. So I think if I were to look at two or three key learnings, I think the brands, so first one of the biggest, I think group point of this entire situation has been the digital space. Fact that brands that have not embraced the technology and digital space, brands and companies I would say, they are the ones who've been struggling the most. This situation will fast forward this whole digital and technology world. And I'm saying not just fact that you embrace the e-commerce, but the fact that how do we service our regular Kiranas also. So clearly one important learning is moving the needle constantly on the digital path is very necessary. Any brand which is not doing it clearly will falter. I know of an example if I were to share, there was a government manufacturer in UK who was making accessible garments and said e-commerce is not suitable for us because we have more accessible kind of products. They are the ones who are worst hit actually. Therefore brands, for us for example, we went on the e-commerce aggressive right couple of years back. We are finding that we are better prepared to respond to this challenge. Had we not done it, I think we would have struggled. So clearly one major learning is the digital space both from a transaction point of view as well as from a consumer communication point of view is extremely important. Second is in the space of health and wellness and I think that's the topic of today and that's what we stand for. I think offering do good products to consumers. Products that really help consumers get better, healthier, provide better nutrition. Those products will become more and more relevant. Consumers will ask you a lot more questions in the future than they have asked in the past. We've seen this trend. I mean 10, 20 years back consumers will not ask so many questions. In the last 5, 8 years, 10 years we've seen consumers ask a lot more questions. They look at the back of the panel much more in the last few years than they have ever in the past. What is in it inside? What is the carb? What is the protein? What is in it for me? Similarly, so therefore for the nutrition, health and wellness brands offering right value to consumers will matter a lot. Today consumers are talking about immunity. Immunity has become such an important thing and immunity goes back to what you eat and how well do you, how healthy do you stay? It is so clearly back to that having real benefits rather than saying making frivolous claims will be more and more important. I think these two things will be here to stay. Of course there are many more but these two things will be here to stay. Third thing I can say which is more of a behavioral thing from organization brands everywhere is adaptability. I'm saying we don't have to say where we are but how agile you are, how adaptable you are to the environment. Environment will change so fast. We are dealing with a very volatile ambiguous world which is going to get more complex. How quickly your brand can adapt, your organization can adapt to the situation will demonstrate whether you succeed. The last is that you can't predict the future and say that I've done this and I can sit back. You have to be constantly at it, execute every week, every month and then look at how did it work and how do I respond. So Nimble-footed brands organizations will succeed in the new world. It's more announcement that tomorrow we have E4M TechMunch virtual series and we have another webinar which is how will digital content consumption plan out in the post-COVID scenario. It starts at 4 p.m. in time. And we can all keep sending questions on FB and Zoom and on Twitter hashtag E4M webinar. My next question and then we'll go to audience questions coming in is that in terms of marketing and reaching, keeping the brand recall alive, we've seen one very unique trend I won't call it unique, it's for a better lack of a better word. That news channel, news channel especially have seen a huge spike in viewership of course. How does a brand, how would a brand look at news channels post this phase according to you? Normally you know we have seen a lot in terms of a lot of folks have known GCCs as well. But do you think besides GCC news John would acquire a new, will be seen through a new set of eyes by brands? I think brands have a need to reach out to consumers. Wherever the consumers are, brands will find a way to connect to the consumers. If the consumer is today the consumption for news channels has shot up, why should the brands not embrace it? We've seen actually because people are watching so much of more news, consuming so much of more news, brands will embrace it. The fact is even the kids channels have done very well. Because the kids are at home and they're watching so much of you kids channel. So I think, I'm not saying and I cannot, it's too early for me to predict that news channel will be the new GEC for the future. But today the fact is that new content is coming much less and I mean it's hard to produce new content because even the industries are in a lockdown and they're not able to generate fresh content. GEC is going through a content limitation and news is something people are consuming. Now this will change once the lockdown stops, once things come back to neutral too, life as usual and I'm not right now guessing or starting a guess how long will that take. But I'm saying when it comes back to normal I mean it will be hard to say that news channel will be the new GEC. Things will come back to normal. I don't think we can today comment that news will continue to command that channel share that it does today. But right now news channels are doing very well and why should the brands not leverage that the right time for the news channel to do. Tell me if the lockdown goes on are brands prepared for that or they're just now kind of just thinking that it won't be maybe beyond certain time do you think brands are prepared for a longer run also in wellness brands? So let me are brands prepared for a longer lockdown I would say everyone's making their own guess because opinions of various experts are split how long will this lockdown last how will the life be the constraint life will last the the fact is that now it is clear that this will be the constraint life that we're talking about even if lockdown eases out and there is a certain kind of openness there will be certain constraints of your ways of working or your normal life there will be certain constraints that will stay and people will be a lot more conscious about hygiene and safety till it is completely eased out till it is completely declared that it is safe and you know covid is out of the picture so so clearly hygiene and safety brands will will continue to be extremely relevant in this environment people will be conscious a lot more about ensuring that their immunity is well they are ensuring they are using taking enough care of their hygiene and therefore it's a good thing for some of these brands that are operating in this space so I think a lot of brands are not prepared for what's going to come but we'll also have to see, take it week by week, month by month see how the situation emerges and respond we cannot kind of start predicting the next 6, 8 months, 9 months very easily there is going to be a lot of changes I also emphasize some changes at the demand level the fact is that this entire you know covid has also redistributed the entire population there is a lot of population who is migrated back to their homelands a lot of workers who are loaders a lot of people working on you know migrant labour who are there available in the urban cities are not going to be available for some time their spaces will be under pressure so demand will be very very different than what we have lived with in the last 2, 3, 4, 5 years it will be very different the population distribution is changing and we will have to adjust to that many of us may not have been prepared for it but we will have to learn every day we have a lot of audience questions coming, I think we will start with some of them I have a question from bridge rubble he is asking can you comment on covid 19 and effect on quality checks keeping consumers in mind how are you ensuring quality checks in these times so first of all I think our commitment on you know safety and quality starts with taking care of our employees so first of all at all our plans and we have a video put up on mingdon also and we can share it at any place so our first thing is that our employees have to be safe and healthy while we have to produce our products, we want all our employees to be safe and healthy so we have taken all the measures that are all our plans so they are checked at the gate for all the you know all the symptoms including temperature check, all the symptoms if there is anything we don't let anyone come in there if they are coming from an area which we feel there is a possibility we do not let that happen there is a safe distancing within the plant so we are operating our plants anything between 30-40% to 50% maximum utilization because we don't need to do more than that right now and even in our canteens we are ensuring people don't sit together but they sit at sufficient distance ensuring all the quality checks are done including what is coming into our plants so we maintained a fair level of control on the the whole environment because for us employee safety consumer safety is at the high level I have another question from Hemsani she is asking how have companies been able to launch sanitizers so quickly normally there are security tests and packaging tests legal preferences how have these been tackled by various ethnicity companies although she has praised also that nice sanitizer packaging has been done very well she also mentions this thank you very much fortunately we had proven formulations available with us we are a wellness company we have had interest in sanitizers several years back also where we test marketed it several years back so we had it in our bank so it's not something and last year we did the consumer validation which came the results came only in February so we had the formulations readily available with us so we launched two variants one was a tested formulation with our partner who we were working with one was our own formulation we were ready with so we have launched both the two formulations and therefore we have been able to you know we had the stability and all those things tested in advance the bigger challenge was to get the packaging which we worked with a couple of packaging suppliers we have a large set of suppliers we looked at what was readily available and we went back with that that was something we did off the shelves right so we have another question from Vinay Nayar he is asking how do you look at your exports overall especially from India especially to South region overall how are you meeting those demands so our business exports business is going business as usual we did get affected little bit because we had certain requirements in certain countries where the ports were shut off but our exports are fulfilled partially from manufacturing and partially from our partners in outside India so some of the ports were closed so much we could not export some of these things but our exports are back to normal we should be making some exports as we making we are in fact making sugar-free chocolates which we sell to Middle East as we speak so we are being able to run our exports I have one small announcement again which is that on 27th April at 3pm we have another webinar with Mr. Vikram Sathuja who will talk about news channels and their own family role in current times so the next question is from Alpana Di and she is asking what would be your advice to B2B startups in wellness space on services side what would be your advice to B2B startups for startups in wellness space on services side so this is a situation where actually the servicing service sector if there is any human contact is getting is under pressure and I really don't have answers for them because I see a whole lot of them struggling but any services which are which is not delivered in person kind of thing those services are if you look at some of the telecom services are doing extremely well so if I look at wellness and if you could be a little bit more specific I could answer that better but I would say wellness is going to be important and therefore it's a good place to be but if I knew something specific I could talk about it this question is from Mr. Anup Sharma he is asking will this pandemic change the priorities of consumers will health product overtake lifestyle products as we move on I would say it's hard to predict beyond a point factors that it depends upon how things shape up over the next 6 to 8 months I mean I have heard several people talk about look the demand is going to come back and everything will be back to normal I have heard some of the automobile guys saying that everything will be normal give it 6 to 9 months public memory is short so I would say I don't think anyone has a very specific answer for that health and wellness products are here to stay people will focus a lot more attention on that but lifestyle products may take a beating in short term but if things come back to normal if vaccine is found out if cures are done I think things come back to normal pretty fast people find their ways back let's look back to 2008-9 let's look back to what happened in demonetization or GST a lot of things a lot of ways of working changed in short term but I think things do tend to come back and therefore I think lifestyle products will come back they will remain important I am still quite confident that lifestyle will be back the health and wellness angle is something which is here to stay they are not necessary at conflict with each other next one is from Karthik Shiv Kumar he is asking how will the new normal pan out will result in more localized manufacturing will India lose the unique India if that happens will India become more global India becomes more global so the new normal is very hard to predict but the fact is that there have been these contrasting things that are happening in the last 5-8 years you look at India you look at Japan and I am saying these two even America have been saying make in America make in India, make in Japan nationalism is back will India be more global or less global I think fact is globalization is not going away dependence upon I would say dependence upon one country or two countries for your supply chain will reduce people will look at business continuity people will look at not depending on limited ways of doing things yes there may be something that on my own rather than outsourcing some things but what is core to your business will come back more so let me you know address it from company level and the country level from a company level I will always now look back ensure that what will ensure business continuity what can I keep more in control and I am not saying about Zidus wellness alone but I am saying any company will look at me so that my business is less affected by the environment and can I control more things from an India's point of view I think a good example is HCQ Zidus group is one of the largest supplies of HCQ when the America wanted more volumes of HCQ and they reached out to India so I don't think globalization is going away India's role in globalization will become more and more important I think India has a clear global ambitions it will play a more important role but each country will also balance its own interest the global village phenomena is you know the original ideas that it's all open and all fair that will get challenged but yes globalization will stay countries will take care of their own interest but will access other countries as well like minded countries there will be a lot more competition since we are on the wellness subject and I want to ask you personally then how are you maintaining your wellness what is the routine like from someone who is heading a wellness company and how are you making your master? so I think this is the time when I have to start by maintaining my own health and you know routine before I ask my team to you know stay healthy and so very importantly I start my day morning at 9 o'clock back to office because I have converted this study into my office and I have reached out to each and every employee through e-town halls reaching out to all of them sharing my views with them we have told them to maintain their health and safety while we are doing our work as usual because we started off on 23rd, 24th of March when the lockdown started 24th with the situation practically the entire supply chain was shut everything was shut and progressively we opened up our entire supply chain and we have had to work with the company and with the industry on helping this through we have spent a fair amount of time working on projects of thinking beyond the you know so you are firefighting for today but you are also building for the future so fast forwarded a lot of our innovation projects which we want to do once things get at least the lockdown constraints come down and things start coming back to normal so we want to be back in business so for my own self what I am doing is while my schedule has become extremely hectic morning 9 to 6, 9 to 7 I am also ensuring that I take a decent break I am also ensuring that I spend a little bit more time with the children in the evening do some cooking take a little bit of time to meditate or relax for a while because sometimes the pressure becomes high that is really what is important a little bit of fitness and helps we have another 5 minutes to go so we will take 2 questions more so I have another question from Alpana and D is a little sensitive question but I just want to share it have you ever manufactured some products in China or import any ingredients or machines from China has any internal discussion happened or Zidas which you want to share so we have a couple of products which come from China our dependence on China has been fairly less and we are not dependent only on those for those products only on China fortunately over the last few years as a part of business continuity plans European and Japanese suppliers available for those products our dependence on China is very negligible for Zidas wellness so clearly I don't think we need to worry too much about it today from Zidas wellness and that's why when I talk about China or any other country in our global perspective I can share what as an industry but from a China specific point of view our dependence is very limited only 2-3-4 products and where we also for other reasons because we had a business continuity plans in place when there was some pressures on their pollution and some of the plants are likely to get closed down we have in short that we have backup available and therefore our dependence is very very limited last question what is the consolidation of businesses in the wellness industry as we know this is from bridge so from a consumer health and wellness space I don't think major changes are envisaged as we speak today there is not going to be necessarily any major change I would say next short to medium term I think most companies are looking good to manage on their own consolidation if at all will happen we will have to wait and watch I don't see that happening today at least in the consumer health and wellness space that we operated FMCG overall I think we will be able to bear this much better than many other industries and therefore I expect life to be back to of course some companies will get hurt more than others and some companies will come out as doing better because they have seen an expansion of consumption in their space food spaces noodles, biscuits they have been great time for them they would have got better but there are other places where they would have got hurt but no consolidation as I see today in short to medium term thank you and great time and thank you for being part of the ABP news presence which ran for virtual series and we have many more coming up and thank you for everyone who sent in their questions and post discussion you can maybe write to him or tweet directly to him thanks once again for being part of this thank you Royale thank you for having me here and it was pleasure talking to all of you and please stay home, please stay healthy and see you