FMCG firms see red over grey, gird up to take on fakes

FMCG companies are beating counterfeiters at their own game.

Taking the menace head on, firms have pulled the stops to knock fakes off the shelf.

According to FMCG majors, the sector is losing close to Rs 5,000 crore every year due to spurious products. The Rs 2,000-crore Emami Group’s products —Navratan, Fair & Handsome and Menthol Plus — have been counterfeited.

An AC Neilsen report says 10% of soft drinks, 10-30% of cosmetics, toiletries and packaged foods are counterfeits.
Emami is, therefore, on a mission to chase duplicates out of its stores.

The Kolkata-based company has set up a five-member special cell to take stock of the fakes flooding the market. “We have relaunched and repackaged our products as it is economically not viable for counterfeiters to innovate at a fast clip,” said Aditya V Agarwal.

Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) has also confiscated goods worth Rs five crore recently and conducted 100 raids across the country last year to confiscate cheap look-alikes. “Fakes are mainly imported from countries like China,” said a source. He added that HUL is working with the customs department to keep a check on these products trickling into the market.

These products are doing a roaring business in the absence of a stringent regulatory framework and porous borders also add to the menace.

Sunil Dutt, country head, Samsung Telecommunications, said, “There is a need of stronger checks at the import post and only authorised dealers should be allowed to import products.”

To counter this, industry body The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s (Ficci) Brand Protection Committee is working with enforcement authorities in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Mumbai and Indore to raid grey markets. BPC had also made a petition to several government bodies for suitable amendments in the Central Excise Act to curb the perils of counterfeits.