Bajaj Consumer Care Ltd (formerly known as Bajaj Corp Ltd) is one of India's leading FMCG companies with major brands in hair care and skin care category. The company's main brand is Bajaj Almond Drop
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s in hair oil category. It markets its skin care products under the brand Nomarks. The company is a part of the Shishir Bajaj Group of companies. As on March 31, 2019, the Company had the following unlisted wholly owned subsidiaries namely: Uptown Properties and Leasing Private Limited, Bajaj Bangladesh Limited and Bajaj Corp International (FZE).
The company has nine production facilities including third party operations to cover foot prints across India and overseas. Broadly Hair oil & skin care products are manufactured at factories situated in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand & Guwahati regions. Out of nine manufacturing facilities, 4 Units are there at Paonta sahib & Parwanoo, three in Uttrakhand & one in Guwahati for manufacturing all variants of hair oils & Nomarks skin care products. Other than hair & skin care portfolio, the company has one facility located in Udaipur, Rajasthan for manufacturing of oral care product.
The company markets their hair oil under the brand names Brahmi Amla, Amla Shikakai and Jasmine Hair Oil. They also produce oral care products under the brand name Bajaj Black Tooth Powder. They market their products through their in-house sales team as well as sales personnel employed through their distributors.
The company is exporting their brands to many countries including UAE, Mauritius, Malaysia, Kuwait, Maldives, Oman, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, Singapore, Myanmar, Pacific Islands (New Zealand, Australia, Fiji Islands) West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Nepal and USA.
Bajaj Corp Ltd was incorporated on April 25, 2006 as a private limited company with the name Bhaumik Agro Products Pvt Ltd. In September 11, 2007, the name of the company was changed from Bhaumik Agro Products Pvt Ltd to Bajaj Corp Private Ltd. In October 16, 2007, the company was converted into a public limited company and the name was changed to Bajaj Corp Ltd.
The company's products have been in existence since 1953 and were sold by different Bajaj group companies. Bajaj Sevashram (BSL) an erstwhile Bajaj group company manufactured and sold the products until December 2000. In January 2001, pursuant to a scheme of de-merger, BSL transferred their operating business and assigned the trademarks for all the brands to their subsidiary Deccan Ayurvedashram Pharmacy Ltd which subsequently changed their name to Bajaj Consumer Care Ltd (BCCL).
In March 12, 2008, the company entered into a brand licensing agreement with the promoter BCCL for the exclusive use of all the brand names under which the company markets their products. In April 2008, the company commenced manufacturing and sale of the products.
In May 2008, the company set up their first manufacturing facility at Parwanoo, Himachal Pradesh and in June 2008 they commenced their operations. In May 2009, they set up another manufacturing facility at Dehradun, Uttarakhand at a cost of Rs.23.9 million.
In October 14, 2009, the company entered into an MoU with Bajaj Infrastructure Development Company Ltd, Bajaj Hindustan Ltd and Teracon Construction (India) Pvt Ltd to form a consortium in the nature of a special purpose vehicle to participate in the tender for redevelopment of property at Nityanand Nagar Vibhag Four Cooperative Housing Society Ltd to be executed as the agent of the society for the proposed development retaining all rights, ownership and possession of the properties with the society.
In August 2010, Bajaj Corp raised Rs 297 crore through an Initial Public Offering (IPO).
In compliance with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) circulars mandating listed entities to maintain public shareholding at a minimum of 25%, SKB Roop Commercial LLP, a constituent of the promoter group of the company on 19 July 2013 made an Offer for Sale of 1,43,75,000 equity shares representing 9.75% of the equity share capital through the Stock Exchange Mechanism.
Bajaj Corp acquired skin care brand NOMARKS, along with associated goodwill, from Ozone Ayurvedics in August 2013. On signing of these agreements with Ozone Ayurvedics, Bajaj Corp has become the sole owner of the NOMARKS brand which gives the company access to the second largest brand in the fast growing Anti Marks & Anti Blemish category of about Rs 350 crore which comes under the overall skin care category of Rs 8,500 crore. NOMARKS product portfolio consisting of face wash, facial cream, soap etc. is based on the natural science of Ayurveda. This acquisition enhances Bajaj Corp's position in the personal care market and gives entry into the fast growing skin care category. At the same time the acquisition of NOMARKS brand is expected to reduce Bajaj Corp's dependence on hair oils.
During the year under review, operations at Bajaj Corp's Paonta Sahib & Selaquin unit, which are its main facilities, were further upgraded and scaled up by adding production capacities coupled with further automation of the processes to increase productivity and to reduce manpower costs.Bajaj Corp's wholly owned subsidiary Bajaj Bangladesh Limited (BBL) has appointed M/s Ethical Toiletaries Limited (ETL) as their third party manufacturer in Bangladesh. M/s ETL has already established the facilities to manufacture Bajaj Almond Drops Hair Oil in Bangladesh. The commercial production started in March 2014. Now and onwards BBL will source its total requirement from M/s ETL.
With effect from 23 December 2013, Bajaj Corp incorporated Bajaj Corp International (FZE), a limited liability Free Zone Establishment in Sharjah Airport International Free Zone Authority (SAIFZ), to expand and carry on the business of trading in skin and hair care products. The Free Zone Establishment has been granted the License Certificate.
Despite the difficult market conditions, Bajaj Corp's brand gained market share in 2013-14 as a result of the differential offtake growth of Light Hair Oil market (which has grown by just 6.6%) and Bajaj Almond Drops which has grown by 13.4% by volume. The growth of the key brand has come as a result of continued investment in advertising and increasing distribution.In 2013-14, the company operated rural vans covering around 10,000 villages/semi urban towns on a monthly basis to increase brand reach. This is reflected in the increase in distribution of around 410,000 outlets during the year.
Despite adverse market conditions, Bajaj Corp's hair oil brand Bajaj Almond Drops, gained market share in 2014-15. Amongst the total hair oil category, Bajaj Almond Drops achieved a market share of 7.6% in MAT Feb 15 as against 7.2% in FY14. In the Light Hair oil segment, the company's brand reached 58.8% in MAT Feb 15, as against a Volume Share of 57.9% in FY14. The company was able to protect and grow its market share in this difficult phase as a result of continued investment in advertising and increasing distribution.
In 2014-15, the company operated rural vans covering around 7700 villages/semi urban towns on a monthly basis to increase brand reach. This is reflected in the increase in distribution of around 106,000 outlets during the year.
In 2014-15, the company completed integration of the Bajaj Nomarks brand into its own sales and distribution network. Bajaj Nomarks cream has become the No. 1 cream in the Anti Marks segment with Volume offtake growth of 26% (For period: Sep-Feb14 over Sep-Feb15) (Source: Nielsen Retail Data, Vol MS Trend). Bajaj Nomarks facewash has also shown 58% growth in volume offtake and become the 2nd largest Anti Marks facewash. (For period: Sep-Feb14 over Sep-Feb15) (Source: Nielsen Retail Data, Vol MS Trend).
During the year, operations at the company's Paonta Sahib & Selaqui manufacturing unit, which are its main facilities, were further upgraded and scaled up by adding the production capacities coupled with further automation of the processes to increase the productivity and to reduce manpower cost.
During 2015-16, the Bajaj Drops Almond Drops brand grew by just 4.7% in volumes. In comparison the brand grew 7% in the rural areas, with this 42.4% of the brand sales come from the rural areas. The Bajaj Almond Drops Hair Oil brand entered 2,36,295 new outlets during the Financial year 2015-16. Out of this more than 1.8 lakh outlets were added in the rural areas.
The company's skin care brand Nomarks showed steady market share and for year 2015-16 maintained a market share of 6.9%. Within the cream segment Nomarks remained the leader with a market share of 15.5% and offtakes grew by 18.3% for the year. On the other hand in the Anti Blemish/Anti Mark Face Wash Segment Nomarks retained its no. 2 position with a volume market share of 6.5%. The brand grew by 71.5% in volume terms during the year.
During the year under review, Bajaj Corp invested in building capacities for sachet, small packs coupled with automation in AHDO, Amla, Nomarks lines with the objective to increase productivity and reduce manpower cost.In very sluggish market conditions, Bajaj Almond Drops Non Sticky Hair Oil, the No. 1 Light Hair Oil in the market grew by 3.2% in value terms and 2% in volume terms in 2016-17. This has resulted in a value share gain of +0.1 to 9.8 % and a volume share decline of -0.1% to 7.3%. Within the Bajaj Almond Drops Hair Oil franchise, the smaller sized and hence lower priced SKUs like the 3ml Sachets and the value packs like 300 ml bottle showed the highest growths in line with the category trends.
In addition to Light Liquid Paraffin (LLP), the major raw material, value engineering initiatives in Glass bottles etc which were initiated during start of the year finally started delivering in 2nd half of the year creating strategic cost advantage for the business.
Bajaj Corp's skin care brand No Marks had a very tough first three quarters on account of excess inventory with distributors and trade, poor offtake and lack of consistency in support. The brand needed to refocus on the core equity which is the cream format with a clear proposition. Q4 marketing investment for the brand with a new TV commercial, print & trade support showed strong results in offtake & internal sales for the test market.
In a strong growing hair oil market in India, Bajaj Almond Drops Non Sticky Hair Oil was able to keep up with the market pace in 2017-18 in Urban, thereby maintain its value share at 10% & increasing its volume share in Urban by 0.3% to 7.8%. It also rectified the issue of slower growths in bottles skus that it had faced last year. In Rural, however the growths were subdued due to the GST impact and recovery of sales numbers took time. Hence at a rural level, the value share declined by 0.6% to 8.9% and volume share declined by 0.3% to 6.6%. This resulted in a value share loss of -0.3% to 9.5% at U+R level, but maintained volume share at 7.3% at U+R
In order to further expand its footprint in the Hair oils category and to strengthen the product portfolio, Bajaj Corp restaged Bajaj Brahmi Amla Hair oil with an Ayurvedic formulation and a premium new packaging and also launched a completely new Hair oil in the value-added coconut oil segment - Bajaj Coco Jasmine Hair oil. The new Bajaj Coco Jasmine Hair oil has a unique combination of coconut oil and Vitamin E to reduce hair breakage by 3 times. It also has jasmine extracts to give it a pleasant fragrance. This is the first product to roll out of the company's newly founded innovation centre and has been tested extensively with consumers before launch.Bajaj Corp's skin care brand NOMARKS witnessed strong results in offtake and internal sales on the back of investments for the brand with a new TV commercial, print, outdoor, digital, consumer promotions & trade support. The focus on chemist channel through deployment of a pharma sales team in the company's test market (UP) has also worked and is a key reason for growth. The spillover impact of the media and improved positive sentiment has helped to turnaround the brand's internal sales in all zones except the low salience South zone. As a result, the all India market shares have also moved up in line with the strong positive growth rates for the focus product - NM cream in the Domestic business.
During the year, the company signed on noted TV actress Dhrashti Dhami as the Brand Ambassador for Bajaj Brahmi Amla Ayurvedic Hair oil.
During FY 2019, name of the company has been changed to Bajaj Consumer Care Limited' from erstwhile name Bajaj Corp Limited'.
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