Piramal Enterprises’ Consumer Products Division has acquired five trademark rights for India from Organon India and MSD BV for Rs 92 crore. The acquisition includes mainly the brands Naturolax, Lactobacil and Farizym, which PEL intends to continue in the gastrointestinal segment through the over-the-counter (OTC) route.

Piramal Enterprises shares were trading up 1.03 per cent or Rs 9.75 at Rs 953 on the BSE at about 12 pm.

Nandini Piramal, Executive Director, Piramal Enterprises, said, “Our aim is to be a significant player in all the businesses we have retained in the Healthcare segment of Piramal Enterprises Limited. The third business in Healthcare segment is the Consumer Product Business and we intend to be a significant player here too."

She said the consumer products business started its journey as an independent player in 2009 and was ranked 40th among all OTC players in India. The business has grown rapidly at 24 per cent over the past 6 years and is now ranked 7th amongst all OTC companies in India.

The overall Indian OTC market is approximately Rs 15,000 crore in size growing at 13-14 per cent.

"In line with our Strategy, we aim to be among the top 3 players in the OTC market by 2020 and the addition of this portfolio of brands will help us move swiftly towards that objective," Piramal said

Recently, Piramal also acquired the babycare brand Little’s, which provides well-being solutions for kids up to the age of 4 years.

"Most of the brands in our Portfolio viz Saridon, Ipill, Lacto Calamine, Tetmosol and Caladryl have a strong consumer franchise and are all either #1 or #2 players in its respective categories. We currently have 6 of our brands in the top 100 OTC brands of India and this list will further increase with the recent addition of Little’s and these brands from OPIL and MSD BV,” Piramal said.

Kedar Rajadnye COO – Consumer Products Division, said, “Today’s consumers lead a fast and hectic lifestyle. This lifestyle coupled with stress and infrequent food habits tends to take a toll on their digestive wellbeing. We expect these brands to leverage the strong sales and distribution capability that we have built over the years and help us improve our profitability margins as there will be higher fixed cost absorption."

The Consumer Product business of Piramal Enterprises caters to all 1 lakh+ populations towns in India and committed to expand our distribution network further to over 20k population towns making it one of the largest distribution footprints in Indian OTC space, the company said.

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