Henkel switches on soap unit in Kolkata

Henkel India Ltd (HIL) today inaugurated its soap finishing line at Kolkata with an investment of around Rs 5 crore.

The new facility will have a capacity of two tonne per hour. The soap brands manufactured at the unit would include Margo, Chek and Fa.

"After completing all our expansion plans at our units at Chennai, Pondhicherry and Kolkata, we might look forward to set up a unit at Himachal Pradesh. This would cater to the production of high-end products," said A Satish Kumar, managing director, Henkel SPIC India Ltd (HSIL).

Last week the board of HIL, formerly the Calcutta Chemical Company, had approved the merger of its detergents subsidiary HSIL with itself at a stock swap ratio of 1:1.

The merger will be completed within three-four months, making the combined share capital nearly Rs 116 crore.

There would be no alteration in the shareholding pattern after the merger. Henkel would hold a 51 per cent equity, while 25 per cent would be with the public and seven per cent with the International Finance Corporation.

The consolidated turnover of the group was expected to be around Rs 400 crore in the current fiscal year, achieving a growth of around 10 per cent from the corresponding figure of Rs 361 crore during 2003, Kumar said.

The product portfolio of the consolidated group would include popular brands such as Margo, Henko, Fa, Pril, Mr White and others.

A major part of the group's revenue came from the sales of Margo and Henko, said Kumar.

The national market share of Henkel in the premiere soap segment was around six per cent, he said.

The overall sales of Margo was around Rs 100 crore last year of which Rs 42 crore came from the West Bengal market, Kumar said.

In addition to West Bengal, Henkel had a strong presence in states such as Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Karnataka.

Henkel also exported its products to neighbouring countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh, Malaysia and other west Asian countries, he said.