Fun fragrance

Mumbai, Oct. 10: Harsh Mariwala’s Marico today acquired a leading soap brand in Bangladesh ? Aromatic.

Marico’s Bangladesh subsidiary, Marico Bangladesh Ltd, has bought the toilet-soap brand from Aromatic Cosmetics Ltd, a Bangladeshi personal care products company, for an undisclosed sum, the company told stock exchanges.

The deal included a non-compete agreement between Marico and Aromatic as well as purchase of certain equipment and IPR by Marico.

For 2004-05, Marico has reported an earnings of Rs 73.79 crore on a net sales of Rs 937 crore. Marico is one of the few consumer goods companies, which is posting more than 20 per cent growth year-on-year.

According to analysts, by acquiring foreign brands like Aromatic, which has a market share of 5 per cent, Marico is planning to meet its targeted sales of Rs 2,000 crore in four years.

Marico Bangladesh had signalled its entry into the toilet-soaps market in the neighbouring country earlier this year when it acquired the Camelia brand.

Marico’s Parachute is a market leader in the coconut oil category in Bangladesh with a distribution network of about 2,90,000 outlets.

The Aromatic soap has an aggregate turnover of about taka 300 million in Bangladesh. Aromatic’s brand equity owes its strength to the quality of the soap and its positioning based on the ‘halal’ concept, which has a strong recall among consumers.

The acquisition of Aromatic will help Marico Bangladesh strengthen its presence in the soap category estimated to be about taka 6,000 million, the company said.

Marico scrip gained Rs 7 on the Bombay Stock Exchange today and ended at Rs 294.20.

Earlier, Marico had revealed plans to invest about Rs 150 crore over a couple of years. It has been scouting for opportunities to acquire brands.

The company plans to expand its skincare services.

Apart from Parachute, Marico’s other popular brand is Saffola refined oil. It has a portfolio of 12 brands. Marico had acquired Mediker from P&G and Oil of Malabar from a south-based company.