Vol. 2 :: No. 11 October, 2000 (Aswin-Kartik))

Corporate

Growth Through Ancillaries

For one, the company has already been introducing a number of new brands in Nepal every year. Only last year, it introduced one brand of toilet soap (Lifebuoy), one brand of toothpaste (Pepsodent Advanced Germicheck), two brands of shampoo (Clinic Plus and Sunsilk) and one brand of tea (Brooke-Bond Red Label).

On top of this, NLL is doubling the toothpaste production capacity of its own plant and, as Singh revealed, the new facilities are in an advanced stage of commissioning. Likewise, as he said, the company is also contemplating a major expansion of toilet soap manufacturing capacity in the near future.

Financials of NLL Rs.million

Trying to dispel doubt whether the company would withdraw from Nepal when the benefit of duty differential on the raw material import into Nepal over India will vanish, Singh said, his company was "here for the long-haul".

But perhaps the most unique of the strategies that NLL has adopted for expansion of business in Nepal is ancillarisation. Last year National Soap Industries (P) Ltd. started the manufacture of ‘OK’ laundry soaps marketed by NLL and also exported it to India. The unit has now put up additional capacity for manufacturing ‘Wheel’ detergent powder. Two new dedicated ancillary units for manufacturing detergent cakes and soaps (Uma Chemicals, Birganj and

JK Soap, Butwal) and another for packing tea (Sungava Tea ) Industry have also commenced operations last year.Singh also promised that NLL will, in keeping with national priorities, concentrate on value-added manufacturing and explore possibilities of tapping markets other than India. At present the company is exporting only to India. All the Liril brand of soap available in India is produced by NLL.

Aggressive Marketing

Nepal Lever’s success must be attributed also to the aggressive marketing that the company has adopted in Nepal leading to some far-reaching developments in Nepal’s marketing practices. One example may be the fantastic find of Monica Chand as a model used in Fair & Lovely fairness cream to convince the Nepali consumers that the cream is made in Nepal and is of international quality.

Similarly, a number of ads made in Nepal for the company have helped to localize its brands. Recently the company also conducted marketing through electronic mail. As a result, the company claims, it has achieved leadership position in all key categories of its business. The major successes named are "Fair & Lovely Made in Nepal", "Pepsodent Advanced Germicheck" "OK" laundry soap and "Wheel Powerons" detergent powder.

As claimed by the company citing ORG-MARG (Nepal) Retail Audit Survey, OK has become the number one brand of laundry soap in terms of sales in Nepal. Similarly, it is also claimed that Pepsodent has gained more than 10% market share within a year of launch.

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