Mumbai: Procter & Gamble India (P&G India), maker of brands like Gillette, Whisper, Vicks, etc, has announced a ₹300 crore ‘P&G Supply Chain Catalyst Fund’ to collaborate with external partners and innovators, in co-creating solutions that accelerate its journey towards supply 3.0 – the modern supply chain ecosystem. This fund will provide an opportunity to start-ups and innovators to collaborate with P&G on business solutions customized to create the next level of supply: a supply chain that provides greater agility, flexibility, scalability, transparency and resilience.
The announcement is in line with the prime minister’s Gati Shakti initiative, which is an endeavour towards multi-modal connectivity in the country that will enhance seamless movement of goods and services through targeted interventions.
P&G India’s strategic investment, as part of ‘P&G Supply Chain Catalyst Fund’ will encompass a diverse array of initiatives, including supply chain optimisation, digitization, capacity enhancement and sustainability, all designed to catalyse the company’s supply chain prowess. This new fund is part of P&G India’s ‘vGROW’ program that focuses on identifying and collaborating with start-ups, small businesses, individuals, and large organisations offering innovative industry-leading business solutions. These solutions will help the company in delivering a superior experience to its consumers and continuing to drive constructive disruption.
With this announcement, the company also launched the sixth edition of ‘P&G vGROW External Business Partner Summit,’ to be held from 28 to 29 September 2023. The Summit offers a platform to existing and new suppliers, in partnership with Incubate Hub, to pitch their solutions to P&G India’s leadership team. Senior leaders from P&G's global leadership team, including P&G chief purchasing officer Ana Elena Marziano and P&G Sr VP Chandra Vaddadi, purchases also attended the summit.
P&G India subcontinent CEO LV Vaidyanathan said, “We are as committed to the nation’s progress as we are to serving consumers with superior products every day. With the ‘P&G Supply Chain Catalyst’ fund, we are focused on co-creating innovative solutions that enhance the very backbone of our operations - the supply chain. We are confident that focused interventions in the supply chain will have a positive impact on our overall priorities including constructive disruption and productivity.”
He further added, “Six years ago, we launched ‘vGROW’ – with the vision to create a platform to foster collaboration and partnerships with external partners and suppliers, to solve business challenges and provide a breeding ground to emerging startups across the country. With this fund, we have committed spends of more than ₹1800 Crore to date in business solutions through vGROW. We strongly believe that a healthy dissatisfaction with the status quo will help us raise the bar on constructive disruption and better serve consumers, customers, and communities.”
vGROW is P&G’s first-of-its-kind platform to identify and collaborate with businesses and individuals offering industry-leading solutions. Through this platform, P&G engages with over 2300 suppliers including start-ups, small businesses, and large organizations from a wide range of industries and services - from creative agencies to technology partners to material suppliers.
In partnership with WEConnect International, P&G India also conducted the next edition of the Women Entrepreneur Development Program (WEDP). About 30 women entrepreneurs, who were selected via an application process, graduated from the two-day program aimed at their capacity development. As part of the program, senior leaders from P&G conducted training and workshops with real-time case studies covering various aspects of building a sustainable business including professional skills like business strategy, finance capital, new customer outreach and more, including strategic inputs for driving business growth.
