Inspite of making consumers aware that Coronavirus is non-effective while preparing mithai and namkeen, consumption of it will not have any adverse effect on human health, still people have refrained from purchasing and consuming it in fear of virus attack.
Due to this baseless fear, mithai and namkeen industry faces 50% close down of outlets and in some cases total shut down of shops.
“Facts and figures that poured in the Federation of Sweets and Namkeen Manufacturers office (FSNM) from different cities of the country are staggering. We have witnessed a tremendous fall in sale just before the total shutdown”, said Firoz H. Naqvi, Director, FSNM.
“Speaking about Mumbai market, our wholesale sales business has gone down to 45 to 50 per cent. As we are monitoring the situation, in coming days it may affect more, as all shops are shutting down on alternative days and customers are home-bound, leaving all the shops and outlets deserted”.
“With more information coming from Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, all sweets shops and branches of mithai & namkeen manufacturers brought the shutter down yesterday at 3pm and since then the business is at standstill”.
“PCMC (Pimpri Chinwad Municipal Corporation) Pune and at Moshi intersection, the shops have remained closed since past 3 days, which means literally no sales!! Almost 40 per cent of major outlets are closed today as per government ordain”, said Maksad Gadve of Kaka Halwai Pune.
Chaitanya Mupalla, MD, Almond House expressed, “So far we saw 30-40 per cent slack in business. With Dine-In closed from today, we are yet to see the difference. With government order of “Janta Curfew”, we are expecting further and major drop after Sunday. On an average, 50 per cent dip in city stores and airport sales down by 75 per cent”.
On 20th March in Pune, Mithai association took a decision to close down all mithai shops for atleast 3 days from 19th to 21st March. Almost 75 per cent of sweet shops are closed. The Association will take review on 21st March for further mode of action, informed Sanjay Chitale of Chitale Bandhu, Pune.
“All our shops are closed. Our wholesale sale business has come down by 45 to 50 per cent. With approaching days, it may hit more, the market may see more shops closing down resulting in a drop of 35 per cent in sales”, said Pradeep Jain from the Mumbai Mithai association.
Pista House exports mithai, snacks and bakery items from Hyderabad to New York has been closed for 1 week, and other locations of the company will remain closed till this Sunday updated Mohammad Mohsin of Pista House Hyderabad via WhatsApp. Sales are down to 40- 50 per cent in all the 20 locations of Pista House, he added.
In Coimbatore, the business of sweets and namkeen went down to atleast 30 to 35 per cent, in Erode (Tamil Nadu) 40 to 45 percent, in Bangalore its down by 40 to 50 per cent, cutting off manufacturing many varieties of sweets and namkeen after Holi festival and corona virus.
According to figures that arrived from Southern India, from March 1st to 7th the sales showed a normal progress, by March 8th to 14th 25 per cent of sales went down and from March 15th to 19th the sales dipped to 50 per cent at an alarming rate.
Agra reported downfall by 40 to 50 percent informed Amit Goyal of Gopaldas Pethawala. He said, “We are worried about the health of customers and our staff. Hence we are keeping our outlets close for few days and supporting Janta Curfew.
The only positive report that FSNM received was from Mota Chips, Mumbai.
“Mota chips sales is up”, said Jeegar Mota, Director of Mota Chips. “Today and tomorrow we saw an increased sales. As we are having a strong home delivery network, sales for us have grown over 40 per cent in the last 15 days”.
All the above mentioned figures are of last 2 days. Today and tomorrow all the shops will remain closed.
FSNM has been putting a lot of effort in consumer education with the help of its members from all over India. Government will have to take some serious and quick action in providing tax relaxation to the industry along with moratorium for upcoming statutory dues, relaxation in utility bill, relaxation for free months on EMI payments and interest and freeze on rental dues.
If the above trend keeps continuing then there will be loss of jobs in thousands if not in millions. Hence to save the ongoing economy, quick actions from the authorities will prove beneficial in long run.