These divisions account for about 3% of consumer care revenues.
Wipro, the Bangalore-based $4-billion soaps to software company, will exit its babycare and vanaspathi business. The management took this decision around a week earlier, say company sources.
These two businesses, part of its consumer care division, account for less than three per cent of Wipro’s consumer care revenues, of Rs 3,000 crore a year. The major share of revenues here come from personal care products, followed by lighting and furniture. The consumer care business contributes about eight per cent to Wipro’s overall revenue.
A company spokesperson declined to comment on “market speculation”. Wipro sources said the presence in the vanaspathi segement was only in the wholesale trade and the company did not manufacture anything directly. The only asset is the brand, Sunflower Vanaspathi. “We exited the retail space in vanaspathi nearly five years ago,” a company official said.
Regarding babycare, the official said with Johnson & Johnson controlling nearly 90 per cent of the market, Wipro was finding it difficult to make progress in the segment. “Every five-six years, we need to take a call on brand rationalisation and have to reorganise and jettison brands. Many FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) companies do and we may be taking that step shortly,” the official said.
The babycare products sell under the Baby Soft brand. Officials said a decision would be announced shortly and the company was understood to have been talking to various industry people on this.
If Wipro exits the vanaspathi business, it will be partly cutting away from its roots. Wipro is an acronym of Western India Palm Refined Oils; it started as a vegetable oil trading company in 1947, from an old mill at Amalner, Maharashtra. The founder was the father of the present chairman, Azim Premji. The company later diversified into software services exports and is now the third largest in that segment in India.