Dabur banking on rural areas for baby care market

Homegrown FMCG major, Dabur, is banking on the country's rural and semi-urban areas for growth in the baby care segment.

The hinterland accounts for nearly 60 per cent of the company's topline in the segment and continues to grow at a much rapid pace than urban India.

Dabur, which is one of the leading players in the baby care segment, has three products in its portfolio, including the flagship Dabur Lal Tel, which has an overall market share of over 25 per cent.

The company is especially looking at the digestives and massage categories in the baby care segment for growth, since it has a market pie of over 23 per cent, Category Head and Additional General Manager, Marketing, Parag Agarwal told Business Standard.

The baby care market, which is estimated at Rs 1500 crore comprising both branded and unbranded segments, is growing at almost 17 per cent annually.

Besides, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar together constitute almost 40 per cent of the total revenues in the baby care segment.

"We are looking at adding value to our products in the baby care segment, which is basically a generic market and still overwhelmingly dominated by the unorganised sector," Agarwal maintained.

Meanwhile, the company is conducting clinical trials for some of its products, the results of which are likely to come by the end of April, he informed. "The clinical trails would validate our approach to chemical free products in our portfolio."

Dabur sources farm and agricultural produce from the industrial town of Baddi in Himachal Pradesh for its ayurvedic and natural products.

The company has a country-wide distribution network of 1.5 million retail outlets with business interests in personal care and health care products viz hair care, oral care, skin care, baby care, health supplements and digestives.