Markfed witnesses record sales during lockdown

Cooperative deployed several marketing tools to expand reach

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Major FMCG companies and retailers witnessed supply chain disruptions during the phase 1 and 2 of lockdown. However, Punjab State Co-op Supply & Marketing Federation Ltd., popularly known as Markfed, witnessed record sales of its edible products in just one month. Varun Roojam, Managing Director, Markfed, in an interaction with Vijay C Roy, said the cooperative deployed several marketing strategies to reach out to consumers and it helped in boosting sales. Excerpts:

Kindly brief us about your operations?

Our turnover is around Rs 14,000 crore. The major part of revenue comes from wheat and rice procurement which is around Rs 11,000 crore. The remaining Rs 3,000 crore comes from trading of fertilisers, BT Cotton seeds, edible products (pulses, sugar, wheat flour, mustard oil and ready-to-eat items) under the brand name “Sohna” in India as well as from exports. We also have an agrochemical plant.

To what extent your operations have been affected due to the lockdown?

We have not been affected due to the lockdown, primarily being a government corporation. We were able to keep our units and factories running during the lockdown. Our supply chain was never disrupted.

Amid lockdown, how has been the demand for your products?

Lockdown came as a blessing for us as the demand for our edible products increased manifold. FMCG companies were facing supply chain issue and as a result their sale declined. Markfed, being a Punjab government entity, didn’t face any supply chain disruptions. Secondly, as soon as the lockdown was announced, we focused on running our all five factories meant for edible products and another agrochemical unit, as they were covered under essential commodities.

Which products witnessed significant demand?

On a routine basis, we sell around 80 tonnes of wheat flour per month in Punjab and Chandigarh. Because of the lockdown, we sold around 210 tonnes of flour in a month. Similarly, the sale of pulses rose from seven tonnes per month to 210 tonnes. The sale of sugar also increased by 30 times. Mustard oil sale almost doubled from 106 kilolitres to 206 kilolitres.

What kind of strategy did you devise to tap the demand?

We started door-to-door delivery system to help the people. We started this initiative with the help of district administrations. Being a government corporation, it came as a boon to us. We hired vehicles to start door-to-door delivery across Punjab and Chandigarh. Special kits were also made for grocery items. Then we started getting orders from Facebook also. We have also tied up with Zomato and Swiggy for delivery of groceries in the tricity. Soon, this service would be extended to other cities of Punjab also.

Don’t you think the sale increased because people started buying in large quantities?

Yes, to some extent. Suppose a customer used to buy groceries for 15 days earlier, after the lockdown, people started buying more due to uncertainty about the future. Moreover, we expanded our reach through home delivery. From rickshaws to trucks, we deployed every mode to tap the demand.

How lockdown has hit your exports?

Definitely, our exports have been affected. Normally, we export around 10 containers of edible products such as wheat flour, oil, pulses and ready-to-eat products (worth Rs 2 crore) every month. We have a huge export market in the US, Canada, Gulf countries, Australia and some European countries. Initially, during the first month of the lockdown, exports were nil. However, from April 15, it picked up, but we are still exporting 50% as there is lockdown in many countries.

What are the lessons learnt from the pandemic?

The biggest challenge is not to disrupt supply challenge. Deploy new marketing strategy and keep on ramping up production to meet the demand.