FMCG Moats in India: All 28 Companies Scored
A famous brand is not a moat, and this sector is where that rule bites hardest. Across every listed Indian FMCG company we score, the highest MoatSCORE is 5.96 and not one clears the wide bar. These are household names with decades of advertising behind them. The framework asks a narrower question than "is this brand well known" — it asks whether the brand lets the company hold price when a competitor cuts.
Where the moat actually sits
Averaged across all 28 fmcg companies, the strongest dimension is Intangible Assets (6.19) and the weakest is Switching Costs (5.10). The pattern to notice is that intangible assets score well while price discretion lags. That gap is the finding: brand recognition is easy to demonstrate and pricing power is hard to prove, and only one of them is a moat.
| Dimension | Sector average | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| D5 Intangible Assets | 6.19 | 28/28 |
| D3 Cost Advantage | 5.90 | 28/28 |
| D4 Price Discretion | 5.90 | 28/28 |
| D1 Network Effects | 5.81 | 28/28 |
| D6 Efficient Scale | 5.78 | 28/28 |
| D2 Switching Costs | 5.10 | 28/28 |
Coverage shows how many companies had enough evidence to score that dimension. A dimension scored for only a handful of companies is a thin signal, not a sector verdict.
All 28 companies, ranked
| Company | MoatSCORE | Classification | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zydus Wellness Ltd. | 5.96 | NARROW → WIDE | First-pass |
| Varun Beverages Ltd. | 5.85 | NARROW → WIDE | First-pass |
| Nestle India Ltd. | 5.70 | NARROW → WIDE | First-pass |
| Emami Ltd. | 5.69 | NARROW → WIDE | First-pass |
| AWL Agri Business Ltd. | 5.65 | NARROW → WIDE | First-pass |
| Marico Ltd. | 5.65 | NARROW → WIDE | First-pass |
| Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. | 5.63 | NARROW → WIDE | First-pass |
| ITC Ltd | 5.62 | NARROW → WIDE | Deep dive |
| Dabur India Ltd. | 5.62 | NARROW → WIDE | First-pass |
| E.I.D. Parry (India) Ltd. | 5.62 | NARROW → WIDE | First-pass |
| Tata Consumer Products Ltd. | 5.62 | NARROW → WIDE | First-pass |
| Allied Blenders and Distillers Ltd. | 5.60 | NARROW → WIDE | First-pass |
| Gillette India Ltd. | 5.60 | NARROW → WIDE | First-pass |
| Radico Khaitan Ltd | 5.60 | NARROW → WIDE | First-pass |
| Bikaji Foods International Ltd. | 5.58 | NARROW → WIDE | First-pass |
| Honasa Consumer Ltd. | 5.57 | NARROW → WIDE | First-pass |
| DOMS Industries Ltd. | 5.55 | NARROW → WIDE | First-pass |
| Patanjali Foods Ltd. | 5.53 | NARROW → WIDE | First-pass |
| United Spirits Ltd. | 5.50 | NARROW (CAPPED) | First-pass |
| Britannia Industries Ltd. | 5.36 | NARROW | First-pass |
| Colgate Palmolive (India) Ltd. | 5.33 | NARROW | First-pass |
| Hindustan Unilever | 5.30 | NARROW | Deep dive |
| CCL Products (I) Ltd. | 5.30 | NARROW | First-pass |
| United Breweries Ltd. | 5.23 | NARROW | First-pass |
| LT Foods Ltd. | 5.22 | NARROW | First-pass |
| Godfrey Phillips India Ltd. | 5.19 | NARROW | First-pass |
| Balrampur Chini Mills Ltd. | 5.05 | NARROW | First-pass |
| Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation Ltd. | 4.91 | NARROW | First-pass |
The test that separates them
The honest test of FMCG pricing power is not a price hike — every company raises prices when input costs rise. It is a price cut: when a challenger undercuts, does the incumbent hold its price and keep its volume, or does it follow the cut down? That is the question our scoring asks of the filings, and it is why several very large brands land in the middle of this table.
Related reading
- Companies With Real Pricing Power in India
- A Price Hike Is Not Pricing Power
- The Trial of India's Most Famous Moat — HUL, cross-examined
- The Moat Is in the Segment, Not the Company
Method and limits
Scores come from MoatSCORE 6.0, applied to filings, annual reports and earnings-call transcripts. Two independent runs on the same evidence must land within half a point. Where we find no evidence for a claimed moat, we record that as a finding rather than a gap. The full cross-sector table is on the Moat Screener.
Educational research, not investment advice. No buy/sell recommendations and no price targets. Moat & Margin is not a SEBI-registered Research Analyst or Investment Adviser.