‘‘Some churning has already happened. More will follow, as these firms are desperately trying to retain people by increasing salaries and giving out-of-turn bonuses,’’ industry sources said.

Interestingly, the desi retail chains are poaching manpower from multinationals. Kevin Parker of Pepsi’s Agri Division is now the COO of Bharti Agritech. Sanjeev Asthana, business head (grain & oilseed) of Cargill has joined Reliance’s agri venture as the grain head. D. Saravanan of McDonald’s has moved to the Reliance supply chain.

Trade circles are abuzz with news that the CFO of a leading biscuit company would join Pantaloon’s financial arm Future Capital Holdings. Among others, Rajeev Karwal, CEO, Kelvinator has moved to Reliance. Damodar Mall, head, Food Bazar, a Pantaloon wing, came from Godrej.

Hewitt Salary Increase Survey has reiterated the growing attrition rate in FMCG sector. In 2004, it was 9.8 per cent, in 2005, it went up to 10.8 per cent. This year, according to industry sources, the attrition rate in the FMCG sector is 16-18 per cent.

The early entrants like Pantaloon, Shoppers’ Stop and RPG Spencer’s have already recruited the available talent in the retail segment. With Reliance’s mega retail foray, Bharti’s Rs 6,000-crore food retail venture, the demand for trained and experienced people in the organised retail sector is increasing.

‘‘Retail sector’s growth is much faster than FMCG. Basically, retail is all about selling. So we naturally draw people from the basic industry, that is FMCG. The compensation and growth is also very attractive here compared to other sectors,’’ says Sanjay Jog, HR head, Pantaloons.

Apart from the retail sector’s voracious appetite for manpower, what’s driving its talent hunt is internal HR issues. At entry levels, attrition rates are high. With loyalty issues haunting middle-level employees, this results in higher salary bandwidths simply to retain talent. At the top end, firms are waiting anywhere from six months to a year to fill up vacancies.

Upcoming retail chains are, for obvious reasons, poaching from the established players like Shopper’s Stop, Kishore Biyani’s Big Bazaar and RPG Group’s Spencer’s for back end operations like supply chain, logistics management etc. But for front-end operations like HR and merchandise management, the target is FMCG.

According to HR consultants, the biggest setback for FMCG companies has been at the middle management level. ‘‘Middle managers in FMCG majors have become favourite poaching grounds for new companies setting up operations in sectors as diverse as insurance, telecom services, banks, retail and back office operations,’’ says K Pandyarajan, managing director Ma Foi Management Consultants.

Is FMCG sector losing its sheen? “Top performers in IIMs prefer investment banks and foreign consultancies to FMCGs. Even though the FMCG industry offers Rs 4.5-5 lakh per annum as entry salaries, this is much less than those offered by foreign banks, investment banks etc. Despite all this, freshers choose FMCG because of what they to get to learn,” says Marico’s HR head Pankaj Bhargava.

There is, of course, a lesson here for the FMCG sector. ‘‘If they don’t give good salaries, the FMCG firms will lose the good hands to other sectors like booming sectors like retail, telecom and aviation,’’ warns Pankaj Joshi, advisor with Singhi Associates.