GCPL expects around 40 per cent of its growth

Homegrown FMCG player Godrej

Consumer Products (GCPL) expects 25-40 percent of its growth

coming in from new products across categories, a top company official has said.

"We are looking at 25-40 percent of this year's

growth coming through new product development. New product

development is a hallmark of our strategy and this year the

paddle has gone further up. We will have around seven to nine

launches this year. The innovation focus will be even more

aggressive this year and a lot of investment has gone behind

them across all categories," GCPL India and SAARC chief

executive officer Sunil Kataria told PTI.

With an aim to disrupt the market, the company today

launched a powder to liquid handwash under its Protekt brand

priced at Rs 15 for a pouch and a combi-pack priced at Rs 35.

"It (liquid handwash) is very small for us right now.

Our aspiration is, in four years (it should be) Rs 500 crore

and in two years Rs 200 crore. Once it reaches that level, it

will be a meaningful part of our portfolio," he said.

The second largest player in the soap category has a

single digit market share in the liquid handwash segment at

present, where the market size is Rs 740 crore, growing at

15 percent.

The personal wash care market in the country is pegged

at Rs, 18,400 crore, largely dominated by soaps and the market estimate for handwashing soaps stands at Rs 8,000 crore.

"We found that consumers found the price of liquid

handwash much higher to their soaps. Soaps today are priced

at almost 40 per cent lower than liquid handwash. Also,

liquid hand wash has barriers in terms of reach as it is

difficult to transport, and freight cost is higher,"

Kataria explained.

The average price of handwash in the country is Rs 57,

while the average cost of a soap is Rs 23, he said.

In terms of reach, soaps are distributed through 80

lakh outlets compared to liquid handwash's 8.5 lakh outlets.

"We will ride up the soap distribution and we want

every soap user to start using liquid handwash. We will be

leveraging Godrej No 1 and Cinthol's soap reach across the

country," he added.

Asked if the new product could lead to

cannibalisation, he said, "right now the market share we play

in is small. It is not that we have a very large business

which is at stake. Secondly, if you are going to create a

disruption and change the growth of the category itself, I

think the choice should be with the consumer. I expect the gains

from the category explosion to be so big that cannibalisation,

even if it happens, will be small in front of that."

He added that in parallel, both markets would co-exist

and expects the category to grow two to three times on the

back of its disruptive product.

The penetration of handwash is very low and restricted

to the higher SEC's which is around 20 per cent in urban India

or around 2 crore households.

He expects rural consumption for the category to pick

up with the affordable pricing.

"In last 10 years, the category reach is 20 per cent

urban and rural is very minuscule. I think it would be great

if this category can double its penetration in urban itself

over the next two to three years. If we can also start a

meaningful penetration happening in rural, it will be a big

success," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)