Marico to revamp strategy for youth portfolio, eyes 20% growth

Expects sales of the segment to rebound after flat performance in Q3

Homegrown FMCG firm Marico is revamping its strategy for youth category products such as hair care items and deodorants, targetiing 20% growth from the segment.

The company, which sells youth brands such as Set Wet, Zatak and Livon in hair care and deodorant categories, is focussing on innovation to accelerate sales growth.

In an investor update, Marico said in the short to medium term outlook, the company would "revamp strategy and drive innovation in the youth portfolio to enable growth at about 15% to 20%".

"Hair gels/creams and serums are sunrise categories and the company will focus on expanding these high margin categories while maintaining share in the cluttered deodorants category," it said.

The company, which does not share revenue from its youth brands separately, said its youth brands portfolio witnessed flat performance during the third quarter ended December 31, 2014.

While hair gels/creams and leave-in serums form two-third of the youth portfolio, deodorant is one-third of the youth portfolio.

Elaborating on its future plans, the company said: "While the long term vision is clear, there have been some delays in implementation of this shift in focus leading to slowdown in growth during the quarter. The company expects the growth to rebound in the next quarter."

During the third quarter ended December 31, 2014, Marico reported 18.11% increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 159.88 crore as against a net profit of Rs 135.36 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

Net sales of the company rose by 20.90% to Rs 1,448.92 crore compared to Rs 1,198.35 crore in the same period previous fiscal.