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Vinod Mathew

Morbi , Dec.12

AJANTA Health, the personal health products arm of the world's largest manufacturer of wall clocks - Ellora Time Ltd, is making waves in the oral care segment.

The Ajanta India Ltd (AIL), barely nine months into commercial production, has already steadied production of its toothpaste at 60 tonnes per day and is planning to double output over the next three months.

The venture, being spearheaded by Dr Ashok O. Patel, youngest son of the group's founder chairman Mr O.R. Patel, is now threatening to overtake its flagship company in terms of turnover by 2004-05.

Talking to Business Line at Ajanta's Morbi base, Dr Patel said Ajanta toothpaste was just the beginning as the company had already launched the second product, shampoo under the brand name of Orsilk.

The next six months would see five other Ajanta shampoo variants being rolled out into the market. True to form, aggressive pricing would remain the key here as well with Orsilk 250 ml bottle priced at Rs 36 as against Rs 96 for a comparable sized product - Hindustan Lever Ltd's Sunsilk. In litre terms this works out to Rs 144 for the Ajanta product and Rs 384 for the HLL product.

"Our USP has been competitive pricing and when we launched Ajanta toothpaste in March 2003, it was priced at Rs 18 per 200 gm tube. At that time, the leading MNCs had a price tag of Rs 54 per 200 gm.

"The message was loud and clear - that the customer could get three Ajanta 200 gm tubes at the cost of one similar sized Colgate product. The result was that both the customers and the retailers responded positively to a quality product at a realistic price.

"Even Colgate responded by rolling down its price to Rs 45 in August, first such effort in the many decades they have been in India," Dr Patel said.

The product contains glycerin and other natural ingredients, which ensured that Ajanta toothpaste got an Indian Dental Association certification — the second in the country to get so. The Vegetarian Society of London approval was the next to follow.

Now priced at Rs 21 for a 200 gm tube, Ajanta has launched variants such as Health Dento White and Dento Care. The company has already put three gel variants in the market — blue, red and lime.

The attempt to woo the middle and high-income bracket customers has begun paying dividends with monthly sales climbing to Rs 10 crore in November, from Rs 5-6 crore in April-May.

AIL is targeting to close its first year with a turnover of at least Rs 120 crore.

According to Mr Manish Purohit, CEO of AIL, Ajanta shampoo is set to follow the footsteps of Ajanta toothpaste as its supply has begun falling short of market demand.

Originally conceived at 10,000 bottles per day, the production is presently getting scaled up to 20,000 bottles per day and even that may have to be revised in the next few months, he said.

"The fact that our manufacturing facilities is being forced to go in for capacity expansions by March 2004, at least one year ahead of schedule, bears out what a success Ajanta's foray into health care products has been.

"Ajanta shaving cream is all set for a national roll out and it is priced at Rs 12 per 70 gm pack, as against Rs 35 for a similar Palmolive or a Rs 37.50 for an Old Spice. Ajanta shaving cream would also be available in a bigger tube of 125 gm at an MRP of Rs 21," Mr Purohit said.

Ajanta is riding on its established network of clock and watch distributors to penetrate remote interiors with its value for money concept.

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