ITC's diversification into non-cigarette biz shows critical mass in profits

A hotel in 1975, entry into paperboards in 1979, India’s dominant cigarette maker, ITC, read the tea — or tobacco — leaves early, leveraged its enterprise strengths and stepped up the diversification agenda to create multiple drivers of growth. Some failed, some faltered, some were transformational, adding steadily to the top line. Now those efforts are making a difference: margins from non-cigarettes — FMCG, hotels, agri, paperboards, paper and packaging — are expanding and profits are kicking in more significantly than ever before.

To be sure, cigarettes still account for 36.59 per cent of revenues and 75.42 per cent of