The Hindu Business Line : VVF set to launch new products

THE Rs 502-crore VVF Ltd, which has its presence in the personal care and oleo chemical categories, is all set to hit the domestic market with new products.

Talking to presspersons, Mr Piyush Jindal, Vice-President, (Personal Care) VVF Ltd, said the company is all set to launch another premium soap for the fairer sex and would be hitting the stores by this summer. The other products catering to this segment include Jo, which comes in three fragrances, rose, lime and sandal, and Doy Care Aloevera.

Talking to Business Line, Mr Jindal said the company is also looking at new shapes and variants in the Doy Care segment, which is for four years and above. He said about three shapes are on the anvil and would contain the olive oil as the major ingredient. "We are trying to attract more children to this segment by giving them the goodness of olive oil and also giving them new shapes of soap to have a bath with," he said.

The company currently has Doy Princess, which comes in the shape of a princess, mermaid and pixie.

Mr Jindal said the company is also entering the body wash and body lotion segments and these would also make its presence in the retail space immediately after the launch of the premium soap. All these new products are slated to be on the shelves in 2006-07. Elaborating on the company's other activities, Mr Jindal said the company is setting up a soap manufacturing facility at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh. The company has already acquired 18 acres of land and would be investing Rs 50 crore in to the new facility.

He said the current soap manufacturing capacity stood at 50,000 tonnes per annum and with this addition, the total capacity would be 75,000 tonnes per annum. The new facility would become operational by the end of this current calendar year, he said. Mr Jindal said the company is also making investment at its Taloja facility for the manufacture of fatty acids and various grades of fatty acids. The investment would be Rs 60 crore and the expansion would be carried out in two phases.

The other expansion would be at its Kutch facility and about Rs 30 crore would be utilised, he said. All these investments would be utilised during 2006-07, he added.

The company has production facilities in Sion (Mumbai), Taloja, Daman Navsari, Kutch and Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone in Dubai and Ontario in Canada.

Mr Jindal said the company has also initiated dialogue with a couple of European firms for the distribution of its unisex products. He said at a later stage, the products might be manufactured in India.

The company, he said, had closed 2004-05 with a turnover of Rs 502 crore and was looking at a turnover of Rs 700 crore for the current year and was estimating to touch Rs 1,000 crore by 2007-08. He said of this, about 43 per cent had come in from exports (2004-05) and was targeting 50 per cent for the current year.