Ozone forays into skincare

Ozone Ayurvedics has expanded its presence from the high-speciality scar and marks removal segment to the skincare segment.

The company, part of the New Delhi based Ozone group, launched its No New Marks cream here today. The cream is a combination of the company's flagship No Marks scar and marks removing cream and a fairness cream.

"We are the pioneers in the anti-scar segment in the country with our No Marks cream, which accounts for 65 per cent of the total sales in the segment. The new product is an extension of the first product," said Parminder P S Sandhu, vice president, Ozone Ayurvedics.

He added that, with New No Marks, the company will promise permanent fairness, as the cream actually works on removing melanin deposits that show up as scars or marks on the body. Ozone expects that the product will account for sales of about Rs 60 crore in the next fiscal.

Although the company does not plan to foray into other FMCG products, it plans a number of offerings in the skincare segment.

The size of the scar and marks removal cream segment in India is around Rs 80 crore, of which Ozone Ayurvedics has a Rs 50 crore share. The overall skincare segment is pegged at Rs 1200 crore, and Ozone's is targeting a five per cent of this market by the end of the next fiscal.

The company already has a presence in south east Asian countries, UK, Canada and middle East. Sandhu said that the company will use its base in UK to expand further into Europe.

Within India, Ozone Ayurvedics has 22 clearing and forwarding location, 2137 stockists and has a presence in 2.32 lakh outlets in all towns of the country with a population of over 50,000.

The Ozone group was set up in 1991 with the flagship company, Ozone Pharmaceuticals. In 2000, the company entered the FMCG market with Ozone Ayurvedics, which has grown to a Rs 40 crore company.

Ozone Ayurvedics clocked revenues of Rs 25 crore in the 2002-02 fiscal and aims at a revenue of Rs 52 crore by the end of the current fiscal. By December 2004, it had clocked revenues of Rs 39.5 crore.

The group aims for a turnover in excess of Rs 100 crore by the end of the current fiscal.