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R. Ravikumar

Plans Rs 200-crore investment in new facilities and capacity expansion

MR PIYUSH JINDAL, Vice-President (Personal Care), VVF Ltd, with actress Pooja Bedi and her daughter at the launch of the company's skin care soap Shiff.

Chennai , Aug. 16

VVF Ltd, a major producer of oleochemicals and manufacturer of personal care products, is open to acquiring foreign or domestic brands. "We have drawn some aggressive growth plans, and an inorganic route is a part of that," says Mr Piyush Jindal, Vice-President (Personal Care), VVF Ltd.

The company's list of well-known clientele for its oleochemicals business include Clariant (Switzerland), BASF (Germany) and Huntsman (US). It also manufactures personal care products on contract basis for leading national and multinational brands such as Johnson & Johnson (baby soap, baby talc and baby oil), Dabur (Vatika), Amway (Persona), Henkel (Fa), Reckitt Benckiser (Dettol), Beirsdorf (Nivea), Pfizer (Neko), JK Helene Curtis (Park Avenue) and also for the hospitality industry.

To expand reach

Apart from this, the company is also planning to expand the reach of its own soap brands of Doy Care Aloe Vera, Doy Care Crème, Doy Princess, Jo and Shiff. "VVF is in the process of strengthening its distribution network in the South. VVF products are at present available in almost one-lakh outlets in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Traditionally, Tamil Nadu has been a strong market for medicated soap brands such as Hamam and Medimix and hence, VVF's presence in this market is currently weak. However, we are in the process of expanding our distribution network in Tamil Nadu in particular," says Mr Jindal.

The company plans to expand its distribution network in all metros and top towns followed by smaller towns and rural markets.

More ad spends

According to Mr Jindal, VVF has increased its advertising and marketing budgets over the past couple of years. Without mentioning precise figures, he said, "Going forward, we plan to be more aggressive on this front." Ruling out any celebrity endorsements, he said, "We will promote our existing brands in a big way in the near future."

Last year, the company's sales of own brands fetched Rs 85 crore. "We are expecting this to grow to Rs 120 crore during the current year."

It is also set to expand its brand and product portfolio with a few more launches in the near future. "We would like to enter the liquid toilet soap market, which is growing fast at over 40 per cent," he said. The company has manufacturing facilities at Mumbai, Daman, Navsari, Kutch and one in Dubai. Last year, the company had set up a 75,000-tonnes plant at Taloja in Maharashtra at an investment of Rs 150 crore "to meet its discerning Indian and international customers".

"This year, we plan to invest a total of Rs 200 crore in setting up new facilities at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh and expand our existing facility in Dubai too," said Mr Jindal.

With all these plans, the company hopes to take its turnover to Rs 1,000 crore in two years from the present Rs 675 crore.

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Soap maker VVF scouts for personal care brands

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