• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• Smartbuy

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Purvita Chatterjee

Mumbai, July 28 Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL) has decided to lay off the shampoo category due to high competition in the segment.

Having test marketed its Godrej No.1 almond shampoo in the market, the FMCG company is no longer contemplating a national foray in the segment. Mr Hoshedar Press, Executive Director & President, GCPL, told Business Line, “We did test market the Godrej No.1 shampoo for a while but now we have decided to put it on the backburner as we believe it is a highly competitive segment to be in.”

There are already several established shampoo brands from HUL and P&G and with ITC too joining the fray, shampoo has become a most competitive segment within the FMCG category in recent times. Even a segment like oral care is considered an area of high competition by the company and it has decided to stay away from this category as well. “In oral care there is already a dominant player — Colgate — while in shampoos there are already big players like HUL and P&G. It does not make sense to enter such hyper competitive segments and we will not jump into it,” Mr Press added.

Realising the impending margin pressures on the business, GCPL has decided to hike prices of its hair colour brands by 10 per cent. However, the impact of the price rise will be felt more on its powdered hair dye brand, Godrej Expert, rather than premium brands such as Godrej Renew or Godrej Color Soft. Building up the price margins for the low priced brands, Godrej recently hiked prices, by about 5-6 per cent, for its soap brands such as Godrej No. 1, Cinthol and Fair Glow.

Its domestic business also saw a dip of 4 per cent in net profit due to the high advertising and marketing spends this quarter.

“We had to shell out an additional Rs 16 crore as part of our advertising and promotions spends this quarter,” said Mr Press. Meanwhile, its international brands have been faring better than the domestic ones. “Keyline brands have seen a 60 per cent jump in sales,” Mr Press said.

More Stories on : Marketing Research | Personal Products

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Baluchari saree may register for GI protection

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line