Leading brands in the refill category of the Rs 550-crore household insecticide market are All-Out and GoodKnight belonging to Karamchand Appliances and Godrej Sara Lee, respectively. The maximum retail prices of both these brands have been reduced to Rs 54 from Rs 63 in October-November '99.

Says Godrej Sara Lee managing director A Mahendran: ``The move is aimed at increasing volumes in a price sensitive market like this.'' According to Mahendran, the quantum of volume growth will negate the effect of a price-cut on the company's bottomline.

Godrej Sara Lee is a leading player in the overall household insecticides market and has marked a presence in all the categories of mosquito mats, coils, refills, machines and aerosols.

Refills form 7-8 per cent of the total household insecticides market in India. The current growth of this segment is ruling at around 35 per cent. The price cut is expected to induce a better growth rate, to the tune of 40-50 per cent, in the current year, said Godrej Sara Lee vice-president (marketing & sales) Zozden FD Lobo.

All-Out is the market leader in refills with a dominating share of around 70 per cent, as per industry estimates. Godrej Sara Lee's share in this category is 25 per cent with the balance five per cent held by other players like Bayer's Baygon, Reckitt & Colman's Mortein and TainwalaChemicals' Casper.

The household insecticides market, as a whole, suffered a dip in growth by reporting a negative growth of 20 per cent last year. Marketers have recently re-activated the market with a host of relaunches especially in the mosquito mats segment. Godrej Sara Lee, for instance, relaunched its flagship brand in mosquito mats, GoodKnight, as `GoodKnight Supermat' with International Powerthrin in October this year. Due to the price sensitive nature of the market, the price of the relaunched version of GoodKnight has been retained at Rs 45 for 30 mats.

Mats form 28 per cent of the total household insecticides market. Godrej Sara Lee believes that mats and refills are better forms of protection against mosquitoes and is attempting to grow the market through these categories.

GoodKnight leads with a market share of 42 per cent in the mat market. The total share of Godrej with its mat brands including Jet and Banish is 68 per cent in August.