Jubilant Organosys To Make Jivanjor Umbrella Brand

Jubilant Organosys (formerly Vam Organic Chemicals) is replacing its brands with a new one, Jivanjor. "This brand will cover all our offerings in the wood polish, adhesive and fertiliser segments," Jubilant Organosys chairman & managing director Shyam S Bhartia said.

At present, the company sells wood polish, adhesives and fertilisers under a slew of brands. Of these, the most visible is Vamicol, the adhesive which commands a 21 per cent share of the market. According to Bhartia, the makeover will start with co-branding of the products -- Jivanjor-Vamicol, for instance. "Once the Jivanjor brand is established, we will remove the old brand from the package," Bhartia said.

 

According to Bhartia, the single umbrella brand would sharpen the company's end-delivery focus, reduce packaging, distribution and other selling overhead costs and would help achieve cost effective strategies in brand communication. "The brand reflects our core value of bonding," Bhartia said.

Theumbrella brand comes on the heels of a total makeover of the group's identity. Explaining the reason for the change, Bhartia said: "The general perception about Vam was that it is in the alcohol-based industry. Very few people knew that it was the flagship of a diversified Rs 1200-crore group with interests in chemicals, biotechnology, information technology, food and oil & gas." It was, therefore, decided to create a group brand identity which would also help in establishing common corporate vales across various businesses.

Bhartia also plans to move Jubilant Organosys up the value chain. "We want to raise the contribution of the specialty chemicals business to our turnover from 44 per cent to 60 per cent by 2003. Similarly, we want to raise the contribution of exports to our turnover from 14 per cent last year to at least 25 per cent in three years. We have set up a subsidiary in the US and a representative office in Shanghai for this," he said.

The Bhartias have also set up a company called Jubilant Biosys in Bangalore. "We have been selling a lot of raw material to the pharmaceutical industry. It is, in a sense, a forward integration for us. It presents exciting opportunities to provide quality, timely and cost effective solutions for early stages during the drug discovery process," Bhartia said.

Jubilant Biosys will provide software services including the development of software systems and databases that aid the process of drug discovery and biotechnology research. The company will have expertise in genomic databse tools, contract research for insilco analysis of genomic and proteomic data, gene expression, target identification and lead optimisation through wet lab and throughput service assay.

Jubilant Organosys holds a 51 per cent stake in Jubilant Biosys. The remaining 49 per cent is held by other group companies, Bhartia said.