``We have appointed a team which has identified ten districts having a greater potential for growth. The team will exploit various areas and opportunities to accelerate growth of our products in these districts,'' Godrej Soaps managing director Adi B Godrej told The Financial Express.

At present, rural sales contribute one-third to the company's sales with the balance coming from the urban market. Godrej Soaps' total income was Rs 918 crore in fiscal 1998-99.

On whether the company was looking at a mega rural sampling exercise similar to what multinational Hindustan Lever is implementing, Godrej said that the company is not looking at that large a scale. ``We are experimenting in 10 districts, some of which fall in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, to improve sales through promotions. However, these are districts where our products are already present. We are only exploiting opportunities of growth in these areas,'' Godrej said.

While HLL's initiative with Project Bharat involves an expenditure of Rs 20 crore in phase one, Godrej is understood to have set aside almost Rs 1 crore for its rural expansion plan. Godrej added that if the experiment were to be successful, the company may launch a similar exercise in 50 more districts. The exercise will be kicked off shortly and will take at least three months to complete.

Says Godrej Soaps president (consumer products division) HK Press: ``A sampling exercise can be done in products like shampoos. For promoting our brand of toilet soaps, we plan to conduct van operations and wall paintings among other such initiatives in these rural areas.'' The activities will also include demos in the case of the company's hair dye brands.

Godrej Soaps' kitty of toilet soaps includes well-known brands such as Cinthol, Ganga and Godrej No.1. Other soap brands are Evita, Marvel and Shikakai. The company also manufactures a range of shaving creams for men under the `Godrej' umbrella and talcs under the `Cinthol' brand. It is a leader in the Rs 180-crore hair dyes market and is present in all price categories starting with the popular Godrej Kali Mehandi to the premium range called Color Soft recently introduced in the market. Its flagship hair dye brand ` Godrej Hair Dye' has a market share of 45 per cent.

Cinthol market share up

Godrej Soaps claims that its flagship brand in toilet soaps `Cinthol' has reported a growth of over 20 per cent in the first quarter of fiscal 1999-2000. This is expected to enhance its share by one percentage point to 6 per cent in the Rs 2,900 crore industry.

``Cinthol has grown by over 20 per cent in the first quarter, at a time when the market grew at just about 3 per cent. We believe Cinthol's market share has increased due to this growth,'' Godrej Soaps managing director Adi B Godrej said.

Cinthol's market share was around 5 per cent in May. Godrej Soaps has a market share of around 8 per cent in the toilet soaps market. The company's total share in toilet soaps has been nearly stagnant at these levels for the last two years. The overall share is also expected to go up on the back of a strong double-digit growth in Cinthol. The company's own brands reported a growth of 17 per cent in the first quarter which led to a 400 per cent jump in the bottomline growth. Godrej Soaps is also hiking its expenditure on advertising and media by 25 per cent this year.

Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.