GCPL looking to expand in overseas markets

As part of plans to expand its global presence, Godrej Consumer Products (GPCL) today said it is exploring opportunities to introduce some of its Indian brands along with acquired labels in new markets.

"We are aggressive on taking Indian brands to overseas markets where there is potential. Not just Indian brands, we are looking at opportunities to take brands from our subsidiaries to the rest of the world," GPCL Executive (Operations) Jimmy Anklesaria told PTI.

At present, some of the Indian brands which are present in the overseas market, include hair care brands like Godrej Expert, Renew, soap brand Godrej No.1 and house insecticides like GoodKnight and Hit.

This year the company had done a spree of acquisitions. After acquiring Nigeria's personal care brand Tura, GCPL bought Indonesia's household insecticide brand Megasari.

It later on acquired two hair care firms -- Issue and Argencos -- in Latin America. It had also bought out its erstwhile partner Sara Lee from their joint venture in India.

While the company plans to introduce household insecticide brands to the African region, it is also exploring opportunities to take its South-African hair accessories to other countries as well.

"India and Indonesia are the biggest markets for household insecticides. However, we are still not present in Africa with our household insecticides, so we would certainly take it there, too," he said.

Besides, the group is looking at bringing its acquired hair care brand from Argentina and adopt its technology to India, he added.

"The Argentinian hair care brand that we acquired is very strong in hair colour technology. So, there is a whole lot of opportunity to adopt in the technology in India, besides introducing the product range in India as well," he said.

At present, sales from the overseas business of Godrej Consumer Products  stands at around Rs 1,500 crore and has been growing at the rate of 20-25 per cent. Around 30-40 per cent of the firm's overall business comes from abroad.

Asked about the company's marketing budget for the international markets, Anklesaria said the company spends around Rs 300-350 crore on marketing and branding activities in a year.

"We put significant investments on our marketing. 20 per cent of our topline goes on branding and marketing. So around Rs 300-350 crore goes on it annually," he said.

The company has been undertaking a major integration exercise under which a few of its acquired brands would be launched in India within the next six months.