Indian Express
16 June 2010
By Ashish Sinha
New Delhi, India

Slowdown brought financial worries, restricted family size: experts
G UESS which category of con sumer products saw maximum growth in sales during 2008 and 2009? At a time when most Indian manufacturers were grappling with the slowdown and sluggish consumer demand, contraceptives sold the most. The growth in sale of contraceptives beat the growth in sale of consumer products such as soaps, shampoos, oil, tea and coffee among others.

According to data released by market research firm The Nielsen, sales of the contraceptive category grew around 30% during 2009–10 as against around 15% growth registered by food products, hot beverages, hair and personal care products.

Total sales of contraceptives amounted to Rs 765 crore in 2009–10 against Rs 596 crore the previous year.

And against 1.5 billion pieces sold in 2008–09, more than 2 billion pieces of condoms were sold in 2009–10.

Likewise, the sale of emergency contraceptive pills grew 200% during the period, recording sales worth Rs 200 crore. Well–known brands in the category include i–pill and Unwanted 72 among others.

Experts see a co–relation between the economic slowdown and in the growth of the category. "Expanding a family is seen as an extra financial burden especially amongst urban and semi–urban population. So may be more people bought contraceptives to keep their financial worries away," says Anand Ramanathan, a senior executive with audit and advisory services company KPMG.

In case of emergency pills, the impressive growth is attributed to the availability of pills over the counter. According to industry insiders, condom brands such as Kohinoor, Durex, Kamasutra and Moods witnessed high double–digit growth during the period.