'Need to drive double-digit top line, and margins in excess of that'

Tata Consumer expects to close the year with margins at 15 per cent. In an interview, Sunil D'Souza, the managing director and chief executive officer of Tata Consumer Products, talks about what led the company to deliver a strong top line in the second quarter despite GST disruptions with Sharleen D'Souza. Edited excerpts:

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WE'RE QUITE CONFIDENT OF HITTING CLOSE TO THE 15 PER CENT PLUS NUMBER (EBITDA) BY Q4 (FY26)

Despite GST disruptions in the quarter, you've managed to see a strong rise in revenue?

■ We've got good volume growth. We continue to expand distribution and innovation and we continue to power up. We are on track for a full year of 5 per cent innovation to sales this year as well. GST disruption came at the end of the quarter, and we did see disruption in our growth portfolio, because salt is GST exempt, and tea was at 5 per cent GST always. But Capital Foods, Organic India, Soulfull, ready-to-drink moved to the 5 per cent bracket. We did see some hiccups in modern trade as well as in general trade. Our internal target was to hit 10,000 crore for the first half of FY26, but we were in touching distance from the number.

Will the extended monsoons have an impact on consumption?