Marico Bangla buys another local soap brand

Marico India, through its wholly owned subsidiary in Bangladesh, Marico Bangladesh (MBL), has acquired a local toilet soap brand Aromatic from Aromatic Cosmetics Ltd (ACL).

This comes close on the heels of MBL acquiring another soap brand, Camelia, in that country a few months ago, marking its entry into the 600-crore-taka soap market there.

Although the total value of the transaction is not available, it included a non-compete agreement between MBL and ACL as well as the purchase of certain equipment and intellectual property rights.

Aromatic owes its brand equity predominantly to its quality as well as its positioning on the halal concept, which has high brand recall with the consumers, a release issued by the company said.

Aromatic currently has a 5 per cent market share in Bangladesh with an aggregate turnover of 30 crore takas, and this acquisition is expected to enable Marico to strengthen its position in the soaps segment in Bangladesh.

Marico is a market leader in the coconut oil market in Bangladesh and has a network of 290,000 outlets.

Marico's 2004-04 global turnover was close to Rs 1,000 crore, which was spread across 12 brands, including Parachute and Kaya.