Mumbai, Feb 25: Godrej HI Care, the 49:51 joint venture between Godrej Soaps and Sara Lee of US, has set up an export division to undertake export of its household insecticide products to countries excluding the Gulf.Export activities have already been kicked off and the company has projected an export turnover of close to Rs 15 crore in a year. According to sources, the company would not be catering to the Gulf as the Godrej group has set up an exclusive export outfit to cater to this market. This outfit, called Godrej Global, is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Godrej Soaps and would be exporting products of all its group companies including the Godrej HI Care product range.
So, while Godrej Global will take care of Godrej HI Care's exports to the Gulf countries, the export division of Godrej HI Care would make efforts to gear up exports to the other parts of the globe.
Godrej HI Care had earlier planned to venture into markets like China, Indonesia and Kenya to set up joint ventures catering to thesemarkets. The company had evinced interest in setting up manufacturing facilities in these markets.
However, due to the South-east Asian turmoil, the talks did not materialise, sources said. Even exports were hit in this market, which is a major consumer of household insecticide products.
Exports to these markets and others are part of Godrej's plans to globalise its operations. Godrej HI Care manufactures brands like Good Knight, Jet, Hit and Banish. Its production facilities are present at Pondicherry, Vapi and Pune. It is a leader in the household insecticides market in India.
While Godrej Soaps already exports to markets like the US, Japan, Africa, Europe and SE Asia, the group plans to increase exports to Russia and other CIS countries this year.
Interestingly, the Godrej brands would compete with Sara Lee internationally in the same field. However, internationally, companies like Reckitt & Colman, Bayer and SC Johnson are more active on the insect repellents market than Sara Lee which is ahighly diversified group with wide business interests, sources said.
Copyright(c)1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
