The Hindu Business Line : Dabur turns around Balsara's oral, home care brands

Bangalore March 9 A year after acquiring Balsara's home & hygiene business, Dabur has turned around several of the brands in the portfolio with at least one of them expected to become a Rs 100-crore brand.

"In the first nine months of the current fiscal alone, we have seen the oral care category report a 16.4 per cent growth year-on-year. The toothpaste portfolio grew at an impressive 33 per cent," Dabur India's Executive Director for Consumer Care Division, Mr V.S. Sitaram, told Business Line.

Overall, the home care category continues to be one of the strong growth drivers for the company. It has recorded a year-to-date growth of 32 per cent this fiscal, with all categories posting good growths, Mr Sitaram said.

Early last year, Dabur paid around Rs 142 crore for the promoters' stake in three of the Balsara India group companies, which was an all-cash deal financed through internal accruals. Mr Sitaram said once the brands were acquired, Dabur went about repositioning some of them and also repackaged a few others. For example, one of Balsara's oral care products, which was languishing as a Rs 40-crore brand when it was acquired, is set to become a Rs 100 crore brand by the end of the current fiscal.

Mr Sitaram said apart from repositioning the brands, Dabur also invested in marketing the brands much more aggressively than before. It even hired a movie star to endorse one of the oral care products. "The investments are being made both in product upgradation as also in brand building activities, and these investments have been commensurate with market needs," Mr Sitaram said.

He said the market share of three of the Balsara oral care brands together is around 8.5 per cent currently, which is two per cent more than when they were acquired. But most of the growth has been recorded in northern, eastern and western markets where the brands have traditionally enjoyed greater brand equity. In these markets alone, these brands have a 10.5 per cent share compared with 7 per cent earlier. Mr Sitaram said the company plans to launch more products and variants in the home care portfolio.

The brands which Dabur acquired from Balsara include, oral care brands such as Babool which is set to become a Rs 100-crore brand this fiscal, Meswak, a Rs 20-crore brand and Promise which is now a Rs 3 crore - 4-crore brand, while Odomos, Odonil, Odopic and Sanifresh are part of the home care portfolio.

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