Godrej Consumer Products Ltd has acquired Soft & Gentle deodorant brand from Colgate-Palmolive in Britain. The acquisition was carried out by the company's subsidiary Key Line Brands and was funded by low cost debt.
With this latest acquisition, the company is expanding its global footprint.
Over the last few months, GCPL has acquired stakes in companies manufacturing hair colour, hair care and house hold products in Chile, Africa and Indonesia.
The company's consolidated net profit rose 25% to Rs 159 crore in second quarter of the current fiscal.
Revenue from international business has been boosting company's results and have grown faster than domestic sales.
With sales of 21 million pounds in 2011, Soft & Gentle is Britain's fourth largest female deodorant brand by market share and retains strong brand equity with retailers and consumers, the company said in a statement.
Commenting on the acquisition, Adi Godrej, Chairman, GCPL, said, "The acquisition of Soft & Gentle by Keyline Brands will add profitable scale to our UK business. Over the last few years, Keyline Brands has delivered good performance and grown in double digits in a very tough market environment that is witnessing little to no growth. Our UK business has historically had a higher mix of distributed brands than owned brands. Strategically, we have been working on changing the mix towards owned brands and building more scale in the business. With the Soft & Gentle acquisition, the salience of owned brands will become greater than that of distributed brands. We expect this acquisition to be accretive in year one."
