NEW DELHI: The All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation (AICPDF), which has been communicating with FMCG firms over the last three months on the issue of alleged deep discounting and predatory prices by JioMart, said it will take it to the road if pay parity is not achieved.
Dhairyashil Patil, President, AICPDF in an interaction with The New Indian Express, told that some firms are taking actions but ‘we demand stricter measures to prevent the JioMart monopoly or we will come to road in the third quarter this year’.
The prices that are offered to the retailer by JioMart are lower than the lending cost of the authorized distributor, says Patil adding the company is giving discounts to the tune of 10-15%.
“Jio has a habit of killing the competition, establishing the monopoly and then going for business.This is their modus operandi – go to an ecosystem and disturb it entirely and then rule over it,” Patil said.
90% trade in FMCG business is done through general trade, which is controlled by distributors.
AICPDF had earlier written to the top 25 FMCG companies and these companies talked to the distributors in January, February.
“The companies assured us that they will maintain the price parity in the market. There were positive signs for one or two months but again the same thing started.”
“We have warned the companies that we will take the matters to the road and will be going in for a plan of action in the third quarter, which is the largest quarter for all FMCG companies,” he said.
Patil, however, added that he believes that there won’t be this situation as companies take actions periodically.