Godrej Consumer to hike soap prices gradually amid palm oil price surge

By Praveen Paramasivam

CHENGALPATTU, India (Reuters) - India's Godrej Consumer Products will keep raising prices of its soaps gradually to protect margins amid rising palm oil prices, the consumer goods maker's top boss said on Monday.

Palm oil prices have surged in recent months due to floods in top producers Indonesia and Malaysia, forcing consumer goods makers, including Dove soapmaker Hindustan Unilever and Cinthol owner Godrej Consumer, to raise prices.

"We have not recovered the full extent of the costs yet," Godrej Consumer CEO Sudhir Sitapati told Reuters in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

It would take 2-to-3 quarters to widen margins, but the company will not push up prices suddenly, the CEO said.

Sitapati does not expect the price hikes to have an impact on sales as palm oil-based products, including soap, tend "not to be discretionary" goods that consumers can forgo.

Soaps make up about a fifth of Godrej Consumer's revenue.

Middle-class Indians, particularly city dwellers, have been cutting spending on everything from cookies to fast food due to elevated inflation and slowing economic growth.

The impact of palm oil prices on margins of larger rival Hindustan Unilever, which has been reformulating its soaps to cut the use of palm oil, is lower, analysts have said.

Godrej Consumer's CEO ruled out reformulating soaps to reduce the use of palm oil.

The company's gross margin narrowed 175 basis points during the October-to-December period from a year earlier, the first shrinkage in two years, as prices of palm oil surged.