fmcg industry

FMCG Industry Snapshot

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Weener Plastics Packaging buys out India-based subsidiary

The company acquired a minority share in the business eight years ago, and says

that it has now acquired the remaining shares in the Indian business to give it total

ownership. Although neither terms and condition of the price of the acquisition

was disclosed, the company did confirm that the acquisition was completed on

December 21st, 2013.Seven manufacturing facilities throughout India. The deal

taps into seven manufacturing facilities located throughout India, where a variety

of plastic packaging is produced for the personal care, food and pharmaceutical

industries. ‘This acquisition is aligned to our strategy of enhancing our footprint in

the emerging markets. WEPL has performed well in the past years and we target to

add to this growth further in the coming years,’ Roel Zeevat, CEO of Weener Plastic

Packaging Group, said.The acquisition is not likely to make any difference to the

current structure of the business inIndia, with managing director A.B. Gupta and

director Abhinav Gupta retaining their positions at the top of the executive board.

Further organic expansion on the horizon However, the acquisition is likely to fuel

further expansion of the business, with Weener Plastics Packaging stating its

intention to increase its organic growth through continued expansion in the fast

moving consumer goods category.

Private equity firms invest about Rs 940 crore in agri-logistics and cold chain

industry in past three years

India, with an extremely high rate of food wastage, is seeing an increasing interest

from private equity investors in the agri-logistics and cold chain industry,

attracting high valuations for their scalable and high growth businesses. PE firms

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have invested about $151.55 million (Rs 940 crore) in 11 companies in the sector

in the past three years, according to Venture Intelligence. Sohan Lal Commodity

received the largest investment of $33 million so far by Everstone, Mayfield, Nexus

Ventures and ICICI Bank. More investments are lined up for the year ahead. "There

are at least 8-10 companies in the market looking to raise funds. Anybody who has

annual revenue of more than Rs 10 crore is looking," said Hemendra Mathur,

managing director, SEAF India Agribusiness International Fund. Agri-logistics and

cold chain companies, which are seeing revenue growth anywhere between 20 per

cent and 100 per cent annually, are hoping to raise anywhere betweenRs 15 crore

and Rs 100 crore each, to scale operations across the country, a necessity for

growing this business faster. Suri Agrofresh, which is half owned by Europe's Total

Produce, is looking to dilute 10-20 per cent equity in the company, its managing

director Hitin Suri told ET. It has been in talks with more than 10 private equity

firms. Some other companies scouting for private equity are Origo Commodities,

Dev Bhumi Cold Chains, Scheduler Logistics and IG International.

Sugar mills high on production, ISMA eyeing govt incentives

Sugar mills have produced 1.95 lakh tonnes of raw sugar in less than two months,

140% more than 0.81 lakh tonne raw sugar produced during the whole of last

sugar season 2012-13. According to Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), it

clearly shows that mills are eager to produce more and more of raw sugar for

exports. "The pace of raw sugar production will improve if the government quickly

announces the incentives it intends to give for raw sugar production. This timing of

the announcement is important especially because only about 90 days of peak




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crushing season remains, which can be utilised by the mills, mostly in the coastal

states," stated an ISMA release. After a sluggish start, sugarcane crushing has

picked up pace by the end of Decemer, 2013. ISMA estimate for sugar production

during 2013-14 stands at 250 lakh tonnes. According to ISMA, 476 mills started

their crushing operations by December 31, 2013 for the 2013-14 season.

"Although this is 23 less in numbers than last year during same corresponding

period, but it seems that the sugar production is slowly catching up the last year's

trend," stated the release. Total sugar production in the country till December 31 is

about 57.39 lakh tonnes, a decline of about 29%, as compared to 80.32 lakh tonne

sugar production last year same time. It was 50% less on December 15. Lower

production this year is due to late start of mills because of the cane pricing

problem

Southern beauty salon brand Naturals is expanding in the North and soon

expects to have a national footprint

This is yet another case of a regional player with national ambitions. Southern

beauty salon brand Naturals is now expanding its presence in the North, and hopes

to soon have a national footprint. The chain recently opened a new salon at the JW

Marriott at the Aerocity, making it its 30 store in the North. ‘We have seen a

window of opportunity, and are looking to become the best national brand of

beauty salons in the country,’ says C.K. Kumaravel, CEO Naturals. The decade old

Naturals is a dominant presence in the beauty business in the southern part of the

country, with more than 125 franchisee-run salons in Chennai alone. It's also

expanded into small towns of Tamil Nadu such as Thanjavur and Chidambaram,




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and now has 300 salons across the country. Now, Kumaravel says the brand has

drawn up ambitions to scale it up by ten times to 3000 salons by 2017. According

to a Ficci-PwC report, the size of the hair and beauty salon business in India is

around Rs 7,000 crore and expected to double by 2015. It's a pretty crowded space

with literally every neighbourhood in India having a beauty salon. But Kumaravel

says he is clear on his target audience, and does not fear competition. He claims

that while there are many established luxury salon brands in the north, that

segment forms only 5 per cent of the market. His positioning is mass premium,

which he says, forms the largest chunk of the salon business with about 75 per cent

market share. And his belief is that capturing this segment will make him a

national brand. Kumaravel might be taking a leaf out of his brother C K

Ranganathan’s copybook . CavinKare, the Chennai headquartered FMCG company

started by Ranganathan, has seen some of its brands such as Nyle successfully go

national.

Consumer price index up 2 points in November

Retail inflation for industrial workers inched up marginally to 11.47 per cent in

November compared to 11.06 per cent in October and 9.55 per cent in the same

month last year due to higher prices of food items. ‘The year’on’year inflation

measured by monthly Consumer Price Index’Industrial Workers (CPI’IW) stood at

11.47 per cent for November, 2013, as compared to 11.06 per cent for the previous

month and 9.55 per cent during the corresponding month of the previous year,’ a

Labour Ministry statement said. The all India CPI’IW for November rose by 2

points and pegged at 243. On one month percentage change, it increased by 0.83




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per cent between October and November compared with 0.46 per cent between

the same two months a year ago. ‘...the food inflation stood at 16.17 per cent

against 15.02 per cent of the previous month and 10.85 per cent in during the

corresponding month of the previous year,’ it said. According to the press release,

the largest upward pressure to the change in the current index came from food

group contributing 2.23 percentage points to the total change. At item level, rice,

wheat, wheat atta, milk, pure ghee, garlic, potato, tomato and other vegetable

items. Tea readymade, etc. are responsible for the rise in the index. However, this

(rise in index) was compensated to some extend by groundnut oil, fresh fish,

poultry, onion, ginger, electric charges, medicine (allopathic), petrol, putting

downward pressure on the index.

This winter, milk prices won’t burn your pockets

Milk procurement by dairy co-operatives and private players has started

increasing in most parts of India with progressing winters. Higher supplies could

lead to stable milk and milk product prices in the coming months. According to

officials in the animal husbandry department of the agriculture ministry, the

average daily milk procurement by major co-operatives such as Amul, Mother

Dairy and Verka have touched 336.08 lakh litre per day as on December 27. Last

year, during the same period, they were procuring 331.34 lakh litre per day. The

official added that the inventory of skimmed milk powder (SMP) stands at 11,350

tonne as against over 60,000 tonne in the previous year. Gujarat Co-operative Milk

Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which sells milk under the Amul brand, has been

procuring 152 lakh litre daily and is manufacturing 7,000-8 ,000 tonne of SMP




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monthly. "We are seeing a gradual increase in milk supply which is expected to go

up in a fortnight," said RS Sodhi, managing director, GCMMF that is the largest

dairy entity in the country and markets close to 92 lakh litre milk everyday. Milk

procurement by its district level member unions has increased by 54% in last five

years. Milk procurement increases from October till March across North and

Western India as winters make cattle more productive. Private dairies engaged

into liquid milk marketing said that by January end, peak procurement would come

and the inventory situation will improve. This could possibly lead to a stable milk

prices in the year ahead. Leading milk brand in Delhi-NCR market, Mother Dairy,

has seen a 7% increase in procurement over the previous year at 35 lakh litre per

day. "From Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, milk procurement is increasing and we

expect to build stocks over the next three months," said Mother Dairy MD S

Nagarajan. He added that it is too early to say how liquid milk prices would move

in the year ahead. Paras, the third-largest dairy brand in the Delhi-NCR after

Mother Dairy and Amul, is expecting liquid milk prices to remain stable for the

next few months.

Hindustan Unilever: Executives see job cuts following CEO Paul Polman's

move to cut cost

Dozens of top marketing managers at Hindustan Unilever are anxious that a major

global business re-organisation unleashed by Unilever Chairman Paul Polman will

result in job cuts in India, limit growth prospects for managers who survive, and

stifle local freedom and innovation. At an investor conference in London in early-

December, Polman announced that Unilever will cut 800 marketing jobs, slash its




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product variants by 30 per cent and focus predominantly on brands with over 1

billion euros in sales, all in a bid to save costs. Its Chief Marketing Officer Keith

Weed also hinted that the company is now more inclined to favour fewer global

advertising concepts over multiple local ideas. These measures, local managers

believe, will impact top marketing talents in India as Unilever is now asking global

marketing and brand managers to "go direct to big countries rather than through

regional hubs". "This will impact managers at work level 1 (entry level) and 2a to

2b. There will be questions at work level 4 (middle- to senior-management), from

a regional brand development and country brandbuilding perspective," says a

former Unilever manager aware of the recent developments.

Coca-Cola plans aggressive ad campaign in 2014 to be India's favourite soft

drink

Coca-Cola has kicked off one of its most expensive print campaigns in recent years

in what is an off-season for soft drinks in a move seen as yet another attempt to

make the world's number one beverage brand India's favourite too. While a Coca-

Cola India spokesman said the move complements the company's strategy to de-

seasonalise the soft drink business, trade insiders said the sudden splurge on

advertising reflects the Atlanta-based beverage giant's keenness to push Coke that

trails at the fourth slot in the Indian soft drinks market. "The current burst of ads ‘

in front or full pages of most mainline national newspapers, on television and radio

‘ is part of a (new) global mandate... it wasn't part of the company's long-term

media plan," an official of a media house said. An industry official who works

closely with the company said, "It is a clear indication that the company will go all




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out in the new year to push brand Coke." Trade sources point out that none of the

other brands in Coca-Cola's portfolio, including Thums Up, Sprite, Fanta and Maaza

soft drinks, Kinley water and Minute Maid juices, are currently being advertised.

Coca-Cola is learnt to have spent at least Rs 12-15 crore on the print burst, which is

expected to last about a week. It carries the lyrics of a jingle Prasoon Joshi wrote

for a television campaign released in early 2012. Coke is set to follow it up with a

television campaign featuring actors Deepika Padukone and Farhan Akhtar. "We

have run numerous print ads in the past for multiple integrated campaigns and

hence it will be difficult to comment whether this is the most expensive," the

company said. India is one of the rare markets where Coca-Cola is available and yet

it's not the top cola brand. Coke trails behind its own Thums Up cola and Sprite

lemon drink, as well as rival Pepsi cola in the Indian market ‘ a fact that the

Atlantabased beverage giant is uncomfortable about.

Britannia bakes a new rural growth plan

Britannia Industries, the bakery and dairy arm of the Wadia Group, is looking to

tap in to India's rural consumption story with its portfolio of value added biscuits

and cookies. Over the last five years the share of glucose biscuits, a segment that

has traditionally found favour in rural markets, has fallen from 35% to 15% of

Britannia's biscuit sales. The $1-billion company now plans to push its slightly

more premium offerings like Good Day cookies and Britannia Marie brands in to

the country's hinterland in value packs of Rs 5. "The rural consumers are also

looking for quality. They will not stay with a Parle-G or Tiger (Britannia's glucose

biscuit) for life. Agricultural income is growing pretty rapidly and consumers are




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looking to upgrade for better consumption experiences," said Varun Berry, India

business head and executive director at Britannia.

Time-bound approvals for agri, food units in Bengal

The West Bengal Government has set a time-frame to speed up the process of

approving new industries in the agriculture and food processing sectors.

Addressing a seminar on food processing and agro industry at the 26 {+t} {+h}

Industrial India Trade Fair here, State Agriculture Minister Moloy Ghatak said: ‘We

will dispose of the applications for setting up new food processing and agriculture

related industries within 45 days.’ Earlier, he added, entrepreneurs used to wait

for a longer period to get clearances from the government and, at times,

applications were not reached the Department concerned on time. Ghatak also said

his department has so far distributed Kisan Credit Cards to nearly 60 lakh farmers

out of the total 71 lakh odd farmers in the State. The Minister has invited private

players to come forward and avail the sops offered by both the State and the Union

Government for setting up rice mills at 165 blocks. Stating that 20-25 per cent of

the agriculture produce gets wasted due to lack of adequate storage facilities,

Ghatak said the government has been attracting private participation to develop

more infrastructure for storing agriculture produce.

Revlon to Exit Operations in China, Cut 1,100 Jobs

Revlon Inc. (REV), the maker of cosmetics under its namesake and Almay brands,

will cease operations in China and eliminate about 1,100 positions, including 940

beauty advisers, as it restructures its struggling business. China makes up about 2




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percent of Revlon’s net sales, and the restructuring will result in about $22 million

of pretax charges, the New York-based company said in a filing with the U.S.

Securities and Exchange Commission. The changes are expected to reduce costs by

about $11 million a year, Revlon said. The company, which posted profit declines

in 2011 and 2012, has been making acquisitions and introducing new products as

sales in some of its larger brands slow. Earlier last year it bought Colomer Group,

giving it Creative Nail professional and Shellac nail polishes, as well as American

Crew men’s hair-care products. ‘Revlon was unable to gain scale and relevance in

the important Chinese beauty market,’ Connie Maneaty, an analyst at BMO Capital

Markets in New York, wrote in a note yesterday. She rates the shares market

perform, the equivalent of a hold. Colomer Chief Executive Officer Lorenzo Delpani

took over as Revlon’s CEO in November, replacing interim chief David Kennedy.

The reorganization isn’t related to the acquisition, Revlon said.

Probe into ‘diversion’ of Rs 4,000 cr by United Spirits necessary

The Karnataka High Court has held that the company court was wrong in

permitting UB (Holdings) Ltd to sell the shares of United Spirits Ltd (USL) without

an investigation into serious allegation about diversion of Rs 4,000 crore to a

British Virgin Island by USL for acquiring a Scottish distillery. In its December 20

verdict of declaring as ‘void’ the permission granted by a single judge bench (acting

as a company court) for selling 1.36 crore shares, a Division Bench has said that

‘â?¦when such serious allegations are made, without investigation of the facts, he

(company judge) could not have granted the permission.’ ‘If the aforesaid facts

(allegations) are true, it shows that the company (UBHL) has not come to the Court




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with clean hands and the transaction in question is not a bona fide one. In other

words, without investigation of serious allegations made attacking the transaction

in question, the learned company judge has granted the permission, which is not

proper,’ the Bench comprising Justice N. Kumar and Justice Rathnakala said.

Perfetti expands snacks portfolio

Perfetti Van Melle India (PVMI) is expanding its snacks portfolio, with the launch of

Stop Not Stixz in addition to its existing variants ‘ Golz and Disks. Stop Not Stixz

will be available in three flavours ‘ Wow Masala, Pudina Passion and Tomato

Tadka. The new range will be available across India in pack sizes of Rs 5, Rs 10 and

Rs 20. The launch will be supported with an ad campaign. Samit Srivastava, Head ‘

Snacks Business, Perfetti Van Melle India, said ‘We are extremely confident about

the new brand and are sure that the new TVC will help generate excitement

amongst kids.’

CCI probing sugar mills for alleged price fixing

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Monday said its director-general

(investigation) was probing allegations of price manipulation by oil marketing

companies (OMCs) and sugar mills during the bidding for ethanol blending with

petrol. Showcause notices have been sent to 18 sugar mills for alleged collusion

with OMCs to fix prices, a senior member of the commission said. Notices might

follow to OMCs. The investigation was triggered around September, on various

complaints. After a preliminary study, CCI decided to refer the matter to the DG (I).

The complainants included liquor manufacturers such as Lords Distillery and life




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sciences companies such as Jubilant Life Sciences, which uses ethanol or industrial

alcohol for making chemicals. They have alleged identical prices were quoted in

bids offered by various ethanol suppliers, especially in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.

And, that most ethanol suppliers which colluded were either members of the

Indian Sugar Mills Association or the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar

Factories. CCI had received similar complaints earlier, against 10-12 sugar mills.

BSE includes Dabur India in S&P BSE Carbonex index

Leading stock exchange BSE has included Dabur India in the S&P BSE Carbonex,

the first of its kind index in the country that recognises companies that are

committed to climate change mitigation. Dabur's inclusion in the index is an

acknowledgement of the company's ongoing initiatives in sustainability. The S&P

BSE Carbonex is an index that holistically incorporates strategies, disclosures,

performance and action in areas of carbon emission to create a comprehensive

benchmark that identifies a company's commitment to mitigate risks arising from

climate change.

Mondelez to Sell Snackwell's Stake to Private-Equity Firm

Mondelez International Inc. has agreed to sell a controlling interest in its

SnackWell's cookie and cracker business, which helped fuel a low-fat-food craze

two decades ago, to a private-equity firm that specializes in revitalizing big

companies' faded brands. Brynwood Partners said it will combine SnackWell's

with its Back to Nature cookies and granola business.




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Tesco, Vodafone receive big-bang FDI clearances

Two days before New Year, the government on Monday approved British retail

giant Tesco Plc’s plan to invest $110 million to buy 50 per cent stake in Tata

Group’s Trent Hypermarket Ltd (THL). With this, Tesco will become the first

foreign player to open stores here that will sell anything from fruit to furniture.

The nod given by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) is expected to

open the doors for future investments by foreign retailers. So far the market has

been dominated by domestic players such as Tata’s Trent, Future Group, Reliance

Retail and Aditya Birla Retail. While in its application the company has stated that

it will invest $110 million (around Rs 680 crore), the amount ‘could be scaled up

later depending on how operations expand in the initial three to four years’, a

senior official told Business Standard.

Brand Amul to spread to America

Come February, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, which owns and

markets the Amul brand of milk products, will start manufacturing ghee (butter

oil), paneer (cottage cheese) and shrikhand (a sweet dish made of strained yogurt)

from a plant near New York. ‘Initially, three products will be manufactured at the

facility from February. There are around 3 million Indian and many more Asian

consumers whom we will target in the initial phase,’ said R. S. Sodhi, Managing

Director of the Federation. The dairy major has joined hands with a New Jersey-

based non-resident Indian to use his plant. Earlier this year, Kaira (Anand) District

Cooperative Milk Producers Union Ltd (Amul Dairy) entered into an agreement

with GCMMF and the NRI. ‘We will provide technology and infrastructure support




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for manufacturing milk products,’ Sodhi told Business Line. Maintaining its core

cooperative structure, GCMMF will source milk from cooperative dairies in the US.

ABD’s new launches likely to heat up market for premium whiskies

Allied Blenders and Distillers Pvt. Ltd (ABD) is planning to boost its offering of

pricier whiskies by launching a brand to take on Pernod Ricard’s Royal Stag label,

one of the fastest growing whisky brands in recent years. ABD, the maker of India’s

largest selling liquor brand Officer’s Choice, will launch Officer’s Choice Black over

the next month and introduce another premium product over the next year, chief

executive Deepak Roy said in an interview. Officer’s Choice Black will be launched

first in Kolkata and Delhi and its price will be similar to Royal Stag’s, Roy said. A

180ml bottle of Royal Stag costs Rs.90 in Delhi. ‘We always had the strategy of

upgrading the Officer’s Choice brand right up to the semi-premium-plus category.

The first test was to do Officer’s Choice Blue and that has worked very well, so now

the time has come for us to move to the next level,’ Roy said. The brand launches

are part of ABD’s strategy to reduce dependence on its Officer’s Choice whisky,

which costs as less as Rs.55 in some markets but still generates more than 80-85%

of the company’s sales. ABD, India’s third largest distiller, has launched several

premium products such as Officer’s Choice Blue, Jolly Roger rum, Lord and Master

brandy and Gorbatschow vodka over the past few years with mixed success.

BSE sets circuit limit of 10% for United Breweries scrip

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has revised the circuit limits for share

movement of Vijay Mallya- led United Breweries (Holdings) Ltd. and six other




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companies, as part of surveillance action. The new limits, which ensure that stock

prices don’t go up or down beyond a level during a trading session, will be effective

from Thursday. BSE said in a circular that the price of UB (Holdings) Ltd. cannot

change by more than 10% in a day. It has also set an upper limit of 10% for Viceroy

Hotels Ltd., Global Capital Markets Ltd., Mavens Biotech Ltd. and Transport

Corporation of India Ltd. While the limits for UB Engineering Ltd. and Prime

Industries Ltd. have been set at 5% and 2%.

New chief executives to steer consumer goods firms in 2014

Having seen off a year marked by economic stress, consumer goods companies will

rest their hopes of a smoother ride in 2014 on a clutch of new chief executives. The

last three months of 2013 saw a bunch of new leaders taking charge of packaged

consumer goods makers which were under pressure during the year as retail

inflation, hovering around double digits, and slower economic growth, which

slumped to a decade’s low of 5% in the year to March, forced households and

individuals to cut spending. On 9 December, beverage maker PepsiCo India

Holdings Pvt. Ltd named D. Shivakumar the company’s new chairman and chief

executive officer (CEO) for the India region. Shivakumar, a former senior executive

at Finnish handset maker Nokia Oyj, succeeded Manu Anand, who left the company

in June this year. In October, three other large consumer goods companies

appointed new leaders. Sanjiv Mehta took over as managing director and CEO of

India’s largest consumer products company Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) in place

of Nitin Paranjpe, who has joined the Unilever Leadership Executive as president,




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home care.

Chhattisgarh and MP tops Spencer's expansion plan

Spencer’s retail limited, India’s leading chain of retail stores, has identified

Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh as potential states for its expansion plan.’We

have chosen Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh as growth engine for future,’

Spencer’s retail limited President and Chief Executive Officer Mohit Kampani said

after inaugurating the Hypermarket in Raipur Friday afternoon. Kampani said they

were looking to add nine stores in next two years in Chhattisgarh and Madhya

Pradesh. Both the states have many towns that have high potential for retail stores,

he added. ‘We are very aggressively expanding our footprint in the country and are

in the process of opening 12 hypermarkets by the end of the current financial year

in chosen geographies,’ Kampani said, adding that Raipur store would be the sixth

in the series. With its foray in Chhattisgarh capital, Spencer had entered into 38th

city across the country.

Mallya’s move to sell UB stake to Heineken hits a bump

Vijay Mallya’s move to sell up to 13 per cent stake in United Breweries Ltd to joint

venture partner Heineken NV is understood to have hit a hurdle over the pricing

issue. Talks between the two have seen several ups and downs, but only recently

have they entered into a critical phase, sources in the company told Business Line.

The Dutch brewer wants to buy the stake from Mallya based on the prevailing

market price, which has been hovering between Rs 755 and Rs 800 over the past

six months. But with United Breweries holding over 50 per cent market share in




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the domestic market, negotiators acting on behalf of Mallya insist they deserve a

good premium. A UB Group spokesperson, however, denied any such plan to

offload the stake, but sources said the negotiations have been going on between

the two for over a year now. If the deal goes through, Heineken will end up with

slightly over 50 per cent stake in United Breweries, the makers of popular

Kingfisher and Kalyani Black Label beers. It will also mean that about 80 per cent

of the total market will be controlled by Heineken and SAB Miller, both foreign

multinationals, thus ending the dominance of Indian business houses in the

segment. The stake sale will allow Mallya and his companies to mop up between Rs

2,000 crore and Rs 2,250 crore, depending on the premium he is able to get over

the existing share price. One of the reasons for Mallya to divest part of his stake in

United Breweries could be to reduce his debt. But he could also be looking at

getting better valuations from international liquor companies, which see a huge

potential in the Indian market.

Gillette India director Saroj Poddar resigns

Saroj Poddar has resigned as director of Gillette India in order to comply with

market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi’s) public

shareholding norms. Poddar has tendered his resignation as director of the

company with effect from December 26, vide his email dated December 26, Gillette

said in a BSE filing on Friday. Poddar, the founder director and chairman of Gillette,

earlier disposed off 7.87% stake in the shaving products maker through the offer-

for-sale (OFS) route to re-classify his group as a public shareholder in order to

increase the minimum public shareholding of the company to 25% as per India’s




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shareholding rules. After the reclassification of Poddar Group, Procter and Gamble

(P&G) became the sole promoter in the company. The OFS by the Poddar Group for

7.87% of their holding in Gillette was fully subscribed in the last month. Now,

Adventz chief Poddar holds the remaining 4.99% stake in the company.

CCI okays United Spirits deal to sell Tamil Nadu distillery

Fair trade watchdog CCI has cleared Vijay Mallya-led United Spirits' proposed sale

of a distillery in Tamil Nadu to Enrica Enterprises, as the deal does not raise

adverse competition concerns. The deal involves hiving off entire operations at the

unit of United Spirits Ltd (USL) that manufactures Indian Made Foreign Spirits

(IMFS) to Enrica "by way of slump sale on a going concern basis". The unit is

located at Poonamallee, Chennai. Post-deal, Enrica would make certain IMFS

brands of United Spirits using technology and know-how and under the trademark

of the Vijay Mallya firm. In an order dated December 26, the Competition

Commission of India (CCI) said "the proposed combination is not likely to have an

appreciable adverse effect on competition in India and therefore, the Commission

hereby approves the proposed combination under...the (Competition) Act".

According to the Commission, the manufacture and sale of IMFS in Tamil Nadu "is

highly regulated by the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation, which has the

exclusive privilege of conducting trade in IMFS in Tamil Nadu".

40 % food products get damaged due to poor packaging: IIP

About 35-40 per cent of food products are being damaged or lost due to poor

packaging in India, a top official of the Indian Institute of Packaging said today.




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Either flavour of products was getting less or the food was getting stale due to

improper packaging, particularly processed food made by cottage industries,

which use candle and sealing machine to pack the covers, Madhav Chakraborthy,

Joint Director, IIP, Hyderabad told reporters here. Moreover, there was some

stipulated norms in packaging food products, depending on its shelf life and also

marketing, whether domestic or export, which a large section of the producers

were not adhering to, he said. Chakraborthy, here as part of a National workshop

in packaging of whole and ground spices, jointly organised by Ministry of Food

Processing Industries, tomorrow, said there was the need to create awareness

among traders and also general public in this regard. The aim of the workshop is to

enhance the knowledge of packaging among the producers of whole and ground

spices, with a view to increasing their local trade besides its export potential,

Chakraborthy said.

Farmers can sell directly in Cong-ruled states

Congress-ruled states will delist "fruits and vegetables" from their Agricultural

Produce Markets Committee (APMC) Act by January 15, a move that would give

free choice to farmers to sell their produce directly in markets. The move to

remove middlemen is seen as an effective way to check hoarding and price rise.

The decision was taken at a meeting of 12 Congress chief ministers with party vice-

president Rahul Gandhi to discuss ways to curb inflation, a sensitive political issue

that has gained urgency in the party ranks after the rout in recent assembly

elections. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had identified high food prices as a reason

that influenced voters against the party. Congress has also asked its CMs to crack




FRPT Research 20

down on hoarders and black marketing by invoking Essential Commodities Act

stringently and by putting the "chronic offenders" behind the bars.

Oil India to enter dairy sector; inks pact with Irma for study

As part of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, energy major Oil India

Ltd (OIL) has decided to step into dairy sector and has signed an agreement with

Institute of Rural Management, Anand (Irma) to carry out a feasibility study.

According to company sources, a detailed project report (DPR) would be prepared

after the study in two districts of Assam where Oil India has significant presence.

"It is going to be a significant CSR initiative of the company. This project is aimed at

filling the gap in milk production in the North-East and giving employment

opportunity to the youths of Assam," a source said. The state-run OIL has signed an

memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Irma in Gujarat around 10 days ago

for the study that will cover select villages in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts of

the state.

Brigade Enterprises buys Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages’ land for Rs.68.83

crore

Brigade Enterprises Ltd, a Bangalore-based real estate company, bought 2.25 acres

of land in Bangalore from Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd, the largest

bottling partner of The Coca-Cola Co. in India, for Rs.68.83 crore. The company, in a

statement on Friday, said it will use the land at Hebbal in north Bangalore for

developing a ‘prime real estate project’. Brigade Enterprises, which has

commercial, residential and hospitality projects across south India, said it had a




FRPT Research 21

land bank of 241 acres worth Rs.5,370 crore in Bangalore as of 30 September. The

presence of information technology and business outsourcing companies in

Bangalore has pushed up demand for commercial and residential properties in the

city, and real estate companies are scouting for industrial land in key locations to

cater to the demand, say property experts. Bangalore was the only Indian city to

feature in a list of top 20 real estate investment destinations in Asia Pacific in a

report published this month by the Urban Land Institute and

PricewaterhouseCoopers.




FRPT Research 22

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