Media

 
The orange and white can or even the brand name may not be familiar to everyone, but Cuticura is not really singing the powder blues.
In fact, with the talc market having registered a growth after four years, Kerala-based Cholayil, the makers of Medimix soap and Cuticura powder, feels it’s just the right time to sprinkle the powder brand in other parts of the country.
The company, thus, is planning a national rollout of Cuticura in July and is also considering extensions into other categories to further grow the brand.
Cuticura is currently available only in the southern region (it is one of the leading talcum powder brands in Kerala) and in select outlets in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata.
The brand was originally owned by Muller & Phipps and globally distributed by UK-based Keyline Brands. However, Cholayil bought the rights to market the brand in India in 2002.
Last year, Godrej Consumer Products bought Keyline Brands and also acquired the rights to market the brand overseas.
But Cholayil indicated it was not eager to sell Cuticura when Godrej Consumer approached with proposals to acquire it.
When Cholayil took over the beleaguered Cuticura from Keyline Brands in 2002, Cuticura was available in its original form.
The lavender variant was added in 2003 though this did not do too well in the market.
However, at that juncture, expansion of the brand was ruled out since Cholayil itself was in the throes of a restructuring exercise, emerging in the new avatar of a professionally managed company from that of a family-run business.
At present, Cuticura rakes in sales worth about Rs 10 crore but Cholayil is convinced that it can do well if taken forward in the right direction.
“We are keen to develop our own portfolio of brands. There is good scope for building the brand since it has a high recall,” said MC Anand Kumar, senior vice-president, sales & marketing, Dorcas Market Makers, the marketing arm of Cholayil.
Apart from a change in the Cuticura packaging, more variants are also on the anvil, said Anand Kumar. A spanking new ad campaign will also break on television soon, he added.
Overall, Cuticura commands about 70% of the urban talc market in southern India. According to AC Neilsen data, Pond’s talc from Hindustan Lever enjoys a marketshare of about 58%, followed by Johnson & Johnson’s baby talc, Spinz (CavinCare), Cinthol (Godrej Consumer Products) and Gokul. In fact, the 10% growth in the talc market in 2005 was spearheaded by a 13% spurt in the sales of Pond’s.