Acquisitions have helped us fill crucial product gaps: Vijay Subramaniam

Interview with CEO (international business), Marico

Marico’s international business contributes 23-24 per cent to the company’s revenue. The company’s last international acquisition was completed last year — it had acquired the X-Men brand from Vietnamese firm ICP. This gave Marico a crucial foothold in the Vietnamese market. Chief Executive Officer (international business) Vijay Subramaniam, in an interview with Viveat Susan Pinto, talks about the company’s plans. Edited excerpts:

For most consumer product companies venturing abroad, the challenge is to make the leap forward, after achieving a certain level of growth.
Certainly. For most, the biggest challenge is how to scale up from here. What do you do next? For us, this means going deeper, as well as wider. That is, expanding our footprint to more markets abroad, as well as penetrating existing markets further. We propose to achieve this using a mix of organic and inorganic tools.

While looking at acquisitions, would you opt for large deals?
That depends on what is on offer, as well as our requirements. So far, the acquisitions we made helped us fill crucial need gaps in our product portfolio. In some cases, these also gave us access to markets. So, a combination of requirements would drive our inorganic strategy.

As you expand your international business, would you consider regions other than West Asia, Africa and Asia?
The potential for growth in these markets is huge. We will continue to focus on these markets in our quest for growth abroad. Product categories would also include those that represent global habits, such as male grooming, hair care and skin care. So far, this has been our strategy, and we intend to continue with it.

Where do you want to see your brands in your markets of operation?
We would like to be among the top three in our markets of operation. In some markets, we are already there — such as in Bangladesh, where Parachute is the number one among 1,800 other brands, according to a recent Nielsen study. We are the leader in the coconut oil and hair dye segments in Bangladesh. Our subsidiary there is also listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange. This business is doing well and it makes us feel proud. We have some other strong brands in our portfolio, too. These include X-Men in Vietnam, the leader in the male grooming segment in that market. We also have Hair Code in Egypt, Code 10 (a hair care brand) in Malaysia and the Caivil and Black Chic ethnic hair products in South Africa, which are also doing well. These are some examples of brands and successes we would like to replicate in other markets. Our endeavour is to maintain the momentum by focusing on the right product categories, distribution and requirements of consumers. We are also focusing on research and development. I think if we are able to do all this effectively, we would be ahead of the curve in most markets.

Would brands such as Saffola be taken abroad?
We have an unfinished agenda, as far as our existing categories are concerned. So, to answer your question, we propose to stick to our existing categories of male grooming, hair care and skin care, as we seek growth abroad.