Kiwi Ttk To Launch Toiletries Range
Kiwi TTK, the 51-49 joint venture between Sara Lee Corporation of the US and the Chennai-based TTK group, is launching the Eva range of toiletries in the country.
Targeted at teenage girls, the Eva range is available in the rest of Asia as `Miss' and `She', says T T Jaganathan, managing director for the TTK group.
The entire product range, except for fragrances and a few other critical inputs that are not available locally, will be made at the company's Maraimalai Nagar plant near Chennai. In the remaining months of the current fiscal, the company has projected a turnover of Rs 4 crore, while the net sale value is around to Rs 3.2 crore. In the second year of operations, Kiwi TTK hopes to break even. According to Jaganathan, toiletries, being an advertising-driven business, has almost insignificant manufacturing costs. Ad spend for the year for instance will almost equal the net sales earnings of the company. The Eva range includes body splash, perfumed deo spray, perfumed deo talc and moisturiser with sun screen.
The products are priced in keeping with the TTK philosophy of giving the consumer quality products at affordable prices and the experience of Sara Lee in the other Asian markets _ products positioned at the lower end of the market fare better than the high-end premium range of products.
The body splash, a new product category, for instance is a Rs 300-crore market growing at 200 per cent per annum. Even at conservative estimates, demand for toiletries is expected to grow at around 50 per cent. Kiwi TTK plans to take on its competitors in the different categories by pricing the products competitively. Sara Lee, which owns more than 500 brands worldwide, is keen on launching as many product categories as possible in India. But, according to Jaganathan, the company is constrained by TTK's ability to spend on marketing. The next product range that will be launched through Kiwi TTK will depend on how quickly we can break even with the Eva range, he added.