The Godrej Group has been repeatedly in the news in recent months for its many acquisitions and aggressive expansion strategy. In an interview with FE’s Rahul Sharma, Godrej Group chairman Adi Godrej talks about the repositioning of the Godrej brand and how integral it is to the company’s overall business strategy. Edited excerpts.

On branding:

For this we formed a team about three years ago and hired InterBrand as our consultant. Our research clearly indicated that the repositioning of Godrej brand was very important and therefore we went ahead with it. We went for a continuous backing of the repositioning of the brand. We did not change the logo, we changed the colours. Earlier there was no standardisation in that. Today?s consumers are much younger, they have high disposable incomes and so on. From our point of view it was very important to reposition the brand to be in sync with times. I do not agree with the view that a staggered approach would have been better. Our own market research shows that this has helped the brand tremendously and the business performance has also been great. We will continue to back the repositioning.

On whether all the expansion and positioning went hand in hand:

Part of the market research also showed that we need to reposition our strategy, what we offer to consumers and what we offer to employees. The positioning was one of higher growth. And that growth was to be achieved through organic and inorganic routes. It was a conscious strategy on market expansion and brand reposition.

On revenue expectations from international business:

This year we expect 25-30% of our revenues to come from international operations.

On future acquisitions:

There is no definite objective. We look at organic growth and inorganic to grow faster. We are looking at acquisitions in both India and abroad. It is difficult to predict where we would be making acquisitions as it will depend on international salience….It is not that we have done this acquisition in this quarter only. It’s a coincidence that all came through in this period….It is possible. We are looking at other opportunities. The focus will largely be on developing markets.

On FMCG portfolio cell:

We are not winding up the FMCG portfolio cell, we are restructuring it. We are also looking at absorbing people from there into the businesses we have acquired recently.

On plans for current acquisitions:

There will be a cross fertilization of technology, brand and products. We could take some brands from South America and introduce them in Africa. And vice versa as well. There could be introduction in Indian market too. It is confidential. But you’ll see some brands being introduced here.

On funding the acquisitions…

We will raise money through QIP (qualified institutional placements) route to finance some of the acquisitions. It will happen soon. Possibly within this month.

On long term vision:

There will be two areas which offer tremendous business opportunity for the group. They are the consumer products and property development business.