Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting (WCCL), the FMCG arm of IT major Wipro, on Tuesday announced the acquisition of Yardley?s UK and Europe business (excluding Germany and Austria) from the Lornamead Group for an undisclosed amount. The software services firm also acquired the UK-based heritage brand Woods of Windsor from the Lornamead stable as it plans to ramp up its presence in mature markets.

In 2009 December, Wipro had acquired the British consumer and homecare brand Yardley?s portfolio for Asia, West Asia, North Africa and Australasia for about $45.5 million from personal care company Lornamead. In the last fiscal, the Yardley and Woods of Windsor brands clocked revenues of $6.2 million in its home market in the UK.

Vineet Agarwal, president, WCCL, said, ?With the Yardley acquisition we have entered markets like UK and Europe. We were earlier focusing on developing countries. Yardley as a brand is doing very well and the?portfolio also had some good perfumes. We plan to launch those products in India and Middle East markets in the next 3-6 months. It is our first attempt outside developing countries to enter developed markets. This is our eighth acquisition in the last nine years.?

?Before we acquired Yardley, the brand had a revenue of R84 crore. In FY12 we did a business of R185 crore, an increase of over two times. It gave us confidence to expand in the developed markets,? he added.

In the first quarter ended June, the company posted a revenue growth of 30% at R979 crore over R755 crore during the same period last year. Profit was up 27% at R114 crore against R89.5 crore, a year ago.