Mint Soap makers hike prices again to maintain margins Mihir Dalal Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting is raising the price of its Santoor soap as it seeks to maintain profit margins amid a rise in ingredient and packaging costs. Wipro Consumer, the consumer business of entrepreneur Azim Premji, raised the price of Santoor by 4-5% this year, the second price increase in six months, chief executive officer (CEO) Vineet Agrawal said in an interview. Rupee depreciation hurt us a lot as most inputs are imported. This price increase was to cover the costs. We usually earn about 11-12% (operating) margins; we should be able to maintain that this year, Agrawal said. Soap makers, including Wipro Consumer and Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), had raised prices last September, partly to get back to earlier pricing levels after consumer goods companies had to adjust pack sizes to comply with new government norms in November 2012. Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, the maker of Cinthol and Godrej No.1, also raised the prices of its soaps earlier this year. Palm oil derivatives (the main input in soaps) prices have increased by around 8-10% over the past few months. Consequently, we have had to take calibrated price increases of around 3% in our soap portfolio, Vivek Gambhir, managing director of Godrej Consumer, said in an email. Soap makers, unlike some other consumer product companies, are more rational about pricing, said Abneesh Roy, an analyst at financial services company Edelweiss Securities Ltd.
Usually, there aren t cutthroat price wars and most soap makers increase prices whenever input costs rise beyond sustainable levels. I don t think price increases of 3-5% will have any impact on demand. They are too small for consumers to notice, Roy said. For the year ended 31 March 2013, Wipro Consumer, which was separated from information technology services company Wipro Ltd last April, reported a revenue of Rs.4,300 crore. Apart from Santoor, the company sells office furniture, bulbs, LED lights, and perfumes and other personal care products, generating about 52% of its revenue from its international business. Consumer goods makers have seen a slowdown in sales growth across products due to continued weakness in the economy and sticky inflation. Growth in both urban and rural areas has dropped. Wipro Consumer s Agrawal said that though Santoor s volume growth had dropped to 10% this financial year from 12% last year, the company, along with other branded soap makers, had taken market share from unorganized market firms. The unorganized players have been impacted much more and across categories. It s the stress environment-input costs have risen and companies haven t been able to get significant price increases because there s pressure on demand. The smaller, unorganized players anyway work on thin margins and they ve been squeezed even more, Agrawal said. Edelweiss s Roy said the local, unorganized players across consumer product categories had been hit significantly by the slowdown in growth and rising ingredient costs.
These players, unlike the big companies, don t have the know-how or the room to manage cash flow during tough times. They just don t have the scale or efficiencies in operations, he said. Wipro s Santoor has also fared relatively better than some branded rivals. Mint reported on 24 February that HUL s soap brands Lifebuoy and Breeze lost market share in small towns and villages, compared with Santoor and Godrej No. 1, citing a 4 February report by Morgan Stanley Research. Our market shares are higher in rural compared with urban. Our distribution is very strong in rural areas and that s where we are interested in, Agrawal said. Business Standard Jyothy steps up focus on Henkel brands Viveat Susan Pinto Jyothy is expected to roll out national campaigns for Ujala, Exo and Maxo in the June quarter Jyothy Laboratories, the fabric and household care company, proposes to step up investment in Henkel products as it eyes a possible 26 per cent stake purchase by the German company in 2016-17. The Dusseldorf-headquartered company has the option of buying the stake, in line with the deal signed when its Indian operations were bought by Jyothy in May 2011. S Raghunandan, chief executive of Jyothy, told Business Standard his priority in two years would be to strengthen the presence of its Pril, Margo, Fa and Henko products, which give the Mumbai-based company 30 per cent of its Rs 1,300-crore annual revenue. "Henko (detergent powder) will be relaunched in the June quarter. We will also come out with new extensions under Margo in personal wash, drive home the premium
positioning of Pril in the dishwashing space and look at new product formulations for Fa (a body care brand)." Raghunandan, according to persons in the know, is likely to meet the Henkel AG management shortly to work out how Fa could be refurbished for the Indian consumer. The product, smallest in Jyothy's portfolio of brands (Ujala, Exo, Maxo, Pril, Margo and Henko are others), has deodorants and talcum powders under it. Raghunandan says the brand, licensed to Jyothy by Henkel, for which it pays a two per cent royalty, along with Pril, has the potential to grow, given the evolution of the personal care space in India in recent years. "Fa is big abroad but not here. We (Jyothy and Henkel) have to sit down and work out where it can be taken," he said, without indicating what he has in mind. But a relaunch is likely, though Raghunandan said it might not happen soon. Jyothy is expected to roll out national campaigns for Ujala, Exo and Maxo in the June quarter as it pushes these products aggressively into urban markets. "Jyothy's products have been strong in rural areas and Henkel's in urban areas. My endeavour is to take these into urban areas." The company gets 60 per cent of its revenue from urban areas and 40 per cent from rural markets. Two years earlier, Raghunandan says, it was exactly the opposite. "The Henkel acquisition did give us the necessary profile in terms of brands. We have to capitalise on this now, with sustained brand-building," he said. Jyothy has doubled advertising spending to 10 per cent of sales from five per cent a year before. This is expected to grow as the company steps up investments behind its brands.
The company is also looking at regional acquisitions, mainly in the south, to support categories such as personal care and fabric care. In December 2013, it had raised Rs 263 crore via a preferential allotment of shares to a promoter group company, Sahayadri Agencies. This, with internal accruals of Rs 220-250 crore, will be deployed to make the new acquisitions. The Economic Times FMCG companies rush to fill gaps in market PTI Consumer product brands are trying to get the most of consumers' time by creating more occasions of usage and new categories within the same proposition to increase sales. Two decades ago, a consumer would just about use a single brand of toothpaste, soap (shampoos too have had a tough time converting non-users as soap doubled up as shampoo), hair oil and talc. Today, there are personal products looking at growth opportunities in the "white" spaces, or empty spaces, within existing categories where brands have still not ventured. So, while moisturizers were brought in - followed by sunscreens - ostensibly to tell consumers they need to take extra care of their skin, separate categories of face wash, anti-ageing and skin repair cream were created. Post-shampoo conditioners, and now specialized hair oils, have got introduced to fill in certain gaps that marketers have only recently spotted. But guess what? There are still several crevices within existing categories that companies continue to exploit globally and in India to create fresh new categories. One such emerging category that got introduced last year in Europe is an in-shower skin conditioner, essentially a post-bath moisturizer by Beiersdorf which, it believes, would co-exist with moisturizers. Even as this new category is being tested in Indian waters, consumers are getting used to stocking up on multiple brands of toothpastes (one normal, one for whitening and
another for sensitivity), shampoos (one normal, another for special occasions), and even fairness creams (one for use at bedtime and another for daytime use). Product usage based on functionality is fast catching up and marketers are going all out to leverage the higher propensity of the young Indian consumer to spend. "We don't think it is too early to launch a globally new category like an in-shower conditioner in India. There are a lot of consumers who would want to use it. But it may not immediately become a mass product," said Rakshit Hargave, MD, Nivea India. Point of sale merchandizing and education would be specific to ensure consumers understand the difference between a regular moisturizer and an in-shower conditioner, Hargave added. Hindustan Unilever (HUL), on the other hand, is investing in the development of several new emerging segments such as face wash, fabric conditioner and hand and body lotions. It has parent Unilever's global R&D capabilities and product portfolio to leverage and address the emerging needs of consumers. "Consumers are increasingly looking for brand offerings to fulfill their specialized needs. It is imperative for brands to continuously innovate and refresh their offerings to ensure that they stay modern and relevant to consumer needs and aspirations," said an HUL spokesperson. The company had earlier launched Tresemme shampoo to meet a different functional requirement of the consumer, even though it already had a premium offering in the Dove shampoo in its portfolio. "In a household, there will be a functional face wash for specific usage and a not-so-functional face wash which a consumer would purchase for herself," said Hargave, giving an example. Another case in point is the teeth whitening segment, which Colgate introduced last year. "As the consumer's focus shifts from basic products to new-age, specialized solutions - such as teeth whitening - there is a constant need to evolve and innovate. Consumers are spending more on looking good," said a Colgate spokesperson.