Smithkline To Focus On Otc, Oral Sectors

Nutritional healthcare giant SmithKline Beecham Consumer Healthcare (SBCH) plans to focus on over-the-counter medicines and oral healthcare businesses in the next ten years as it expects fast growth in these two areas, thereby increasing their contribution to net sales by 20 per cent.

At the moment, nutritional healthcare products dominate sales to the extent of contributing 80 per cent of the net sales.

"Although this area will remain our main business, over-the-counter drugs and oral healthcare are fast growth areas and we expect that in another ten years, nutritional healthcare business is expected to contribute to around 60 per cent of our sales earnings", the SmithKline Beecham general manager (marketing) Akhil Chandra told Business Standard.

 

The company has brands like Horlicks, Boost and Ribena under its nutritional healthcare category, Eno, Crocin and Tum in the OTC category and Aquafresh toothbrushes in the oral care division.

The company is investing heavily in upgrading its infotech facilities at Nabha and Rajahmundry and will be installing entrepreneur resource planning facilities in its offices.

The company is rapidly modernising and upgrading its factories and has a total work force of over 2,000 people.

SBCH is currently relaunching Horlicks with `smart nutrients' with an ad spend of around Rs 20 crore.

According to Chandra, the new formulation incorporates vital micronutrients that are known to have a proven direct co-relation with mental sharpness and physical activeness. These are iron, vitamin B The new product addresses widespread critical nutritional deficiencies in India. These deficiencies are common even in middle class, well-to-do homes because some of these micronutrients are not consumed in adequate amounts on a daily basis.

Horlicks controls 60 per cent in the Indian health food drink market of Rs 800 crore. It has a turnover of over Rs 400 crore and a cumulative annual growth rate of over 25 per cent in the last three years. The ads for the new product will hit Indian television screens from August 7.