The Hindu Business Line : Prime Hygiene plans new products; to go national

THE Mumbai-based Prime Hygiene Care Pvt Ltd harbour big plans for the hygiene market. The company is currently on the job of establishing a national footprint.

Though just one year old, Prime Hygiene is not entirely new to the hygiene market - since one of its associate companies has been contract manufacturing sanitary napkins for Johnson &Johnson (J&J), says Mr Anil Parmar, President, Prime Hygiene.

Giving an indication of the segment's market potential, he told Business Line, "China has 1,200 factories for disposable hygiene products and sales of about Rs 3,500 crore from these products. India has about 40 factories of different sizes in the same segment and a present market size of only about Rs 425 crore."

P&G and Johnson & Johnson are the largest players in this segment in the country, besides smaller players such as Nobel Hygiene, he points out.

Prime Hygiene plans to bring in products such as alcohol-free baby wipes with aloe vera, facial cleansing wipes, household surface disinfectant wipes, anti-bacteria wipes, adult wipes with aloe vera, sanitary napkins, baby and adult diapers.

And while products such as adult diapers are relatively unknown in the domestic market, Prime Hygiene is looking to keep its products affordable, he said. The company will be promoting products through retailers and expects to be available across the country in a year.

Prime Hygiene and its associate companies have turnover in excess of Rs 12 crore and expects to mop up Rs 10 crore from the new business in the first year of operation, he said. Prime Hygiene and its associates expect to clock Rs 25 crore in two years.

The company sources its products from American Hygienics Corporation - a company that also supplies to Wal-Mart and Marks & Spencer.

The import duty on raw material and finished product notwithstanding, it makes more economic sense for the company to import products than produce it locally, he said. Plans to manufacture locally will depend on how the volumes are generated, besides the policy initiatives of the Government, he added.

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