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Purvita Chatterjee

Wants to have balanced portfolio with 50:50 ratio

Mumbai March 12 Rasoi Group company JL Morison plans to reduce its dependence on its flagship brand, Nivea and focus on others such as Emoform, Equal and Morisons in its portfolio.

"Today almost 80 per cent of the turnover comes from Nivea but we would like to have a balanced portfolio with a 50:50 ratio between Nivea and the rest of the brands,'' says Mr Bipin Vengsarkar, Executive Director.

Having extended its Morisons brand into baby care and colognes, the company now plans to extend it into toothbrushes. Besides, Emoform and Equal are also expected to get more attention from the company. "We are awaiting approval from the licensees of these brands to extend them in the country,'' said Mr Vengsarkar.

Focusing primarily on distributing and manufacturing the European brands, of late, JL Morison has been trying to build its own baby care brand under Morisons. "The baby care market is a difficult market with J&J already dominating this segment,'' added Mr Varunn Mody, Director, Rasoi Group.

But with its distribution strengths, JL Morison expects to grow brands such as the low-calorie Equal in the market.

Having taken over its distribution early this year, JL Morison expects to make the Rs 10-crore Equal brand reach 2 lakh outlets across the country while its parent company Merisant would continue to market the brand.

"We would like to take Equal's turnover closer to that of the largest selling brand, Sugar Free,'' says Mr Mody.

Currently Zydus Cadila's Sugar Free commands a market share of 75 per cent while Equal has managed to garner a 17 per cent value share in the low-calorie sugar segment.

"Most of the MNCs in the country prefer to control the marketing operations for their brands while distribution and manufacturing have been offloaded to Indian companies,'' he says.

Making a re-entry into the hair colouring market after its break up with the owners of Wella brand of hair colours, JL Morison has also decided to market and distribute the Ward Group-owned Restoria Discreet brand of hair care products in India. The Rs 98-crore company expects to register Rs 200-crore turnover by 2007-08.

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