Procter & Gamble India, is bracing for a fresh round of battle with Hindustan Lever, the soaps, detergents and foods major 51 per cent-owned by arch-rival Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever Plc. This time it will be led by a new leader.

The P&G top-slot has fallen vacant with the transfer of David Thomas, the India chief, who now proceeds to more onerous tasks. Thomas has been appointed vice-president and managing director of Procter & Gamble Worldwide. At present Thomas is the vice-president and CEO for India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He will from now onwards look after P&G's worldwide strategic planning from Britain.

"Thomas piloted the consumer products giant through a crucial learning period in India, when it went through a joint venture experience that has set its agenda for the future", said a top P&G source asked to pick on the core achievement of Thomas.

"We had a complicated arrangement with the Godrej group, which involved sharing of brands, production capacities, technology as well as marketing techniques", said the source.

As the joint venture broke up, Thomas went through a difficult first half when company's products increased by around 20 per cent in value, but the margins came under pressure as the Godrej capacities could not longer be used and operating expenditure rose by almost 30 per cent.

The period also involved exchange of executives between Procter & Gamble and Godrej, a situation that resulted in some reversals when the joint venture broke up and some Procter & Gamble India officials left to join Godrej.Thomas joined P&G on September 1, 1979 as a trainee. He has been associated with P&G in various capacities including international assignments in its subsidaries in Austria, Germany and Thailand. He joined the Indian operations in September 1992.

Obviously, his learning process in India is valued by P&G, because in sheer numbers, Procter & Gamble's performance at least in the first half year has not exactly been shining. Product sales increased by around 20 per cent, even as profit before tax dropped 19 per cent. Operating margins came down to 15 per cent from 20 per cent during the corresponding period last year. Over the last year, Procter & Gamble has engaged Hindustan Lever in serious battle over the last year through several brand battles, which has effectively established Ariel as one of the leading premium detergent brands.Thomas also initiated a new manufacturing facility in Goa for the company's new health care products. With high expenditure, he suffered a slump in net profit by six per cent.

What has not exactly endeared Procter & Gamble to the Swadeshi brigade over the last two years was not the breakup with Godrej, which resulted in some temporary rumours about his personal differences with Godrej's daughter, but did not go much further. The problems came with Thomas quietly initiating the shift of lead brands to a 100 per cent subsidiary, P&G Home Products Ltd. The P&G stock suffered some investor dissatisfaction, and a general perception has taken hold that P&G India will not own the cream brands it launches in future. Whisper and Pantene, a sanitary napkin and a shampoo brand respectively, were the first to be shifted out. Thomas' last hurrah was when he engaged Hindustan Lever chief in a war of letters over a claim in a letter that the Unilever subsidiary was aping P&G in its advertisement saying that it had a special "anti-bobbling" reagant in its detergent. P&G had already said this, he claimed.

The letter-war was fought out in the media, and was settled, as a lot of these cases are, out-of-the Triple As of I. P&G's joint venture era is over, and it will probably go ahead now to a new phase of carving out a niche for its products.

Clearly, P&G India's role will only be in the marketplace, not in ownership of brands. But the Indian subsidiary will be the one fighting it out in the heat and dust -- under a new leader.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.