Southeast Asia to have a brush with Colgate's herbal toothpastes

The Vedshakti brand, launched by Colgate in India, has now been taken to Thailand

Colgate-Palmolive, which is enhancing its naturals’ portfolio in India, is now exporting some of its herbal products to Southeast Asia, the company’s global chairman, president and chief executive officer, Ian Cook, said during an investor call. 

The move comes as India emerges a key hub for naturals-based products for the company.

Speaking to analysts on Saturday, Cook said the company’s Vedshakti brand, first launched in India two years ago under the Cibaca umbrella, is now being exported to Thailand. “We are calling it Colgate Naturals Panjaved in that market (Thailand) and further expanding our portfolio in the higher price naturals segment there,” he said.

Besides Cibaca Vedshakti, Colgate had launched Swarna Vedshakti last year in a bid to counter Patanjali, which has been giving it stiff competition in the naturals space.  Colgate also launched variants of its Active Salt toothpaste, pushing brands such as Colgate Herbal, Colgate Total (charcoal variant) and Colgate Sensitive (with clove oil) aggressively in the market.

“We are encouraged by the improvement in performance of our India business. We continue to deliver volume growth with positive pricing despite high levels of competitive activity,” Cook said about the India market while speaking about the company’s July-September quarterly numbers at the global level.

Colgate posted revenue of $3.85 billion in the July-September period, missing analysts’ estimates who expected $3.88 billion for the quarter. Profit for the period stood at $523 million, the company said, even as Asian markets showed signs of recovery.

“We are also encouraged with the market share of our Swarna and Cibaca Vedshakti toothpaste lines. As we see further distribution gains and continue to invest in advertising, we expect our share in the ayurvedic segment of toothpastes to grow in India,” Cook said.

In previous conversation with analysts, Cook had said the company would rapidly roll out naturals-based products across markets such as China, Russia, the US, Middle East and all principal markets in the Asia-Pacific region.

In more recent updates, Cook said that naturals products from the company were now available in 44 markets and would be rolled out in an additional 32 places by the end of the 2018.

“In toothpastes, we have launched naturals in every hub in Asia and across Europe, broadly. We will launch naturals in Latin America and Africa-Eurasia soon as the trend grows across the world,” he said.