New Delhi, Oct. 23: Dabur today announced it is in the process of signing up agreements to set up joint ventures in Bangladesh and Pakistan. It also plans ventures in Nigeria and Iran in the near future, besides expanding its marketing base in the US and Europe.

The Bangladesh joint venture, to be signed next week, is with Asian Consumer Care, where Dabur will have a 76 per cent equity through its 100 per cent subsidiary company in Dubai. The international business division of Dabur is based in Dubai and the joint ventures will be through this company, CEO of Dabur India Ltd Sunil Duggal said.

In Pakistan, the joint venture will be with Mullers and Fibbs, with Dabur picking up a majority 74 per cent stake. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been already signed but Dabur officials said it will take a year for the venture to launch operations.

Dabur, which has a strong presence in Egypt, is drawing up plans to shortly hit the markets of Nigeria and Iran through joint ventures.

“We have a strong presence in the US and the UK among the Indian diaspora. We now have plans to go for mainstream marketing in these parts,” said Duggal.

Dabur is also in the process of launching its new brand entity called ‘Anmol’ which will be a range of ayurvedic products, positioned as value for money products. The company has already come up with mustard hair oil which has other herbal elements. In the pipleine is an ayurvedic shampoo in the economy category, Dabur India Ltd vice-president marketing Devendra Garg said.

Meanwhile, in a Rs 10-crore media campaign, Dabur, which considers itself as a ‘herbal specialist’ company, has roped in Amitabh Bachchan to launch a campaign for one of its prime brands — Chayawanprash. It has signed Bachchan as its brand ambassador in a three-year contract which will see the megastar endorsing the entire range of Dabur's healthcare products, including Hajmola.

“Dabur is the largest manufacturer of Chyawanprash and holds about 64 per cent of market share of this approximately Rs 200 crore domestic market,” said Duggal. “We want to fuel the category’s growth, which has not been growing for the past couple of years.”

Dabur has also changed the packaging of Chayawanprash and is looking at the possibilities of launching the product in pouches and as packaged bars.