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For 117 years, the company sold its brand under the eponymous Amrutanjan as a fix-all from headaches and colds to aches and pains. However, to overcome becoming a generic term for headache cure, Amrutanjan Health Care Ltd has planned a sub-brand, Relief, for its cold management products such as cough syrups, cold-rubs, lozenges and inhalers.
Mr S. Sambhu Prasad, CEO and Managing Director, says, “Similarly, our health and personal care products including hand sanitiser and corn caps will come under the brand Purity.”
To coincide with the launch of its sub-brands, the company has also launched its redesigned logo with new brand positioning as ‘Pure healthy essence' and “completely new packaging targeted at the youth.”
The company recently diversified into the food and personal care product categories. It launched a range of ready-to-eat food products including sambar rice, carrot halwa and dhal , packed in retort pouches under the brand ‘Kitchen Delights'; and hand sanitiser, corn caps, and Comfy-branded sanitary napkins. Early this year, following its acquisition of still drink brand Fruitnik from Siva's, it forayed into the non-carbonated soft drink segment too.
In the pain management category, with Amrutanjan Pain balms (in yellow and white variants), roll-on, cream and spray, the company competes with international brands such as Procter and Gamble (Vicks), GSK (Iodex) and Reckitt Benckiser (Moov) and another home-grown brand Emami (Zandu).
In the Rs 1,700-crore rubs and balms market, with close to 10 per cent share, Amrutanjan is the third largest player after Vicks and Zandu.
“After we acquired, the Fruitnik brand is now the third largest selling brand in its segment in Tamil Nadu,” said Mr Prasad. According to him, the Tamil Nadu market size for ‘still drinks' is Rs 375 crore, and Fruitnik commands 6.3 per cent of this market. In this segment, Coca-Cola's Maaza is the market leader with 34 per cent share, followed by PepsiCo's Slice (31 per cent).
In another development, the promoters of the company have bought back over 1 lakh shares from the open market in the last three months taking their total hold in the company to over 50 per cent from the earlier 48.5 per cent. During 2009-10, it bought back 1.7 lakh shares from the market.
For the quarter ended June 30, 2011, the company posted a turnover of Rs 14.65 crore, against Rs 6.80 crore in the comparable previous year period.
The company's share closed on the BSE at Rs 774.55 with close to 90,000 shares changing hands today, from the previous close of Rs 780.90.
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