Patanjali's run for growth: Where will Swami Ramdev's company go from here?
"We only know how to run, we don’t know how to walk.” That’s what Swami Ramdev, the Co-founder of the Patanjali group told us in 2021 when we ran the cover story on his plans for Ruchi Soya, which he acquired for Rs 4,350 crore in 2019 through the insolvency process. Ruchi’s turnover at the time was Rs 16,383 crore. Cut to 2024, and Ruchi Soya, now christened Patanjali Foods Ltd (PFL), clocked a turnover of Rs 31,962 crore in FY24. Moreover, primarily an edible oils company at the time, PFL today sees 30% of its turnover coming from the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) business. Swami Ramdev and group Co-founder Acharya Balkrishna have shown Patanjali can run.
But this run hasn’t been without its hurdles, and the group has stumbled along the way. With the edible oils business subject to price fluctuations and supply disruptions, PFL’s top line has remained flat and margins lower than competitors. But the bigger blow came when the Supreme Court forced Patanjali Ayurved to apologise for what it deemed as misleading claims about having cures for diabetes and high blood pressure. This court directive has dented Patanjali’s image and market experts reckon it’ll be a while before other firms in the group’s stable can tap the bourses.
However, true to his pugnacious nature, Swami Ramdev is unfazed. Instead, as our cover story by Arnab Dutta explains, he’s busy crafting a fresh game plan with an eye on an ambitious group turnover figure of Rs 1 lakh crore by 2028. That’s more than double the group’s current turnover of Rs 45,000 crore. The new growth formula is predicated on a few strategic calls—converting PFL into a predominantly FMCG company by adding to its portfolio, getting into the premium products market, and pulling off acquisitions in the consumer space.
On July 1, as part of this new game plan, Patanjali Ayurved transferred its home and personal care (HPC) portfolio to PFL (the foods portfolio was transferred earlier). Ramdev tells my colleague, BTTV Managing Editor Siddharth Zarabi, that he wants to make PFL (which may undergo a name change following the HPC realignment) the largest foods and HPC company in the world. By doing this, the yoga guru known for his dislike of MNCs wants to take them on even in the global market. And what about charges around the quality of Patanjali’s products? That, he says, is the result of corporate-, political-, intellectual- and drug mafia targeting his group. Whether Ramdev’s plan works or not, one thing is clear—there’s never a dull moment when the maverick yoga guru is battling his competitors.
