Britannia hints at friendly end to Danone tiff

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Kolkata, Jul 28: The stand-off between Britannia Industries Ltd and French partner Groupe Danone over intellectual property rights could end in an out-of-court settlement, top Britannia officials hinted. Britannia chairman Nusli Wadia declined to comment on issues relating to Danone in his replies to shareholders at their 89th annual general meeting here Monday. “The IPR issue is still pending and we hope it will come to resolution sooner or later,” he said. “We are addressing it and hopefully it will be settled amicably.”

After the AGM, Britannia’s CFO Durgesh Mehta also hinted as much in reply to a question whether the company would go for arbitration or fight in court. “We are fighting the case in Singapore and Malaysia courts against Danone, which has infringed upon our IPR. We are simultaneously also talking to them,” Mehta said.

“Our dispute is with the infringements. If the infringement continues, dispute will also continue,” he said. Britannia has been locked in legal tangle with France’s Group Danone for a few years now over the Indian company’s Tiger trademark, its largest revenue driver. Danone had allegedly been marketing the Tiger range in many other countries.

Meanwhile, Britannia is planning to invest Rs 75-100 crore in 2008-09 to expand its capacity. It has already invested Rs 200 crore in the last 18 months. Faced with an increase of almost 15% in input costs, Britannia is also looking at a possible price increase.