Emami eyes 50% of top line from its acquired brands

Kolkata: The acquired brands of Emami Ltd now contribute 45% of the top line of the FMCG major and this could go past 50% soon.
Emami vice-chairman and MD Harsha V Agarwal mentioned in the company’s annual report that acquired brands were doing well. Emami vice-chairman and wholetime director Mohan Goenka told TOI that in the near future, acquired brands could be 50% of company’s top line. “Inorganic expansion was always part of our growth,” he said.
Some of the acquired brands of Emami include Zandu, Kesh King and Dermicool.
In the report, Agarwal said when Emami acquired Zandu more than a decade-and-a half ago — in possibly the largest acquisition in the country’s personal care space — there was a question over whether it had paid too much. Emami acquired Zandu in late 2008 for Rs 750 crore.
“At Emami, we didn’t just take a call on what we had acquired; we also took a call on what we could do with the acquisition. Following the ‘Emami touch’, Zandu was turned around. It contributes significantly to our top line and bottom line and has since graduated from an almost standalone brand into a multi-variant platform. We are pleased to communicate that we have extended this success to other acquired brands as well: Kesh King in 2015, Creme 21 in 2019 and Dermicool in 2022,” he said.
To grow from one level to another with speed, there was a growing premium on acquisition, Agarwal said. “This approach is time-efficient when one considers the time and other resources saved through acquisition,” he added.
According to Agarwal, Emami was also focusing on distribution through new-age channels. It was doing this by accelerating modern trade growth with a thrust on B2C & joint business plans with retail chains and by using the latest tools to drive high fill rates within stores by tracking in-store visibility, on-shelf inventory and store level line extensions across all modern trade formats and outlets.
“For e-commerce, we made our products available at all major online marketplaces, grocery, beauty & pharmaceutical platforms,” he said.