Piramal Enterprises strengthens OTC portfolio with Pfizer's four brands

Piramal Enterprises’ Consumer Products Division on May 13, 2016 entered into an agreement to acquire four brands - Ferradol, Neko, Sloan’s and Waterbury’s Compound - from Pfizer Limited for a consideration of Rs 110 crores. Additionally, the agreement also includes the trademark rights for Ferradol and Waterbury’s Compound in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
 
These brands have a high consumer pull and are available in India for the past more than 30 years. Ferradol is a nutritional supplement for children and adults, Neko (a medicated soap) is indicated for body odour & minor skin infections, Sloan’s is muscular pain reliever and Waterbury’s Compound is used for building cough and cold immunity.
   
These products currently operate in a market which is currently estimated at Rs 7000 crore.
 
Completion of the deal is subject to certain conditions including regulatory approvals.
 
“Our aim is to be a significant player in every business under the healthcare vertical of Piramal Enterprises Limited. We are one of the large custom manufacturing companies and have manufacturing bases in North America, European Union and Asia. Our critical care business is the third largest player in the global inhalation anaesthesia market. The consumer products division of the company currently ranks seventh in India; but we aim to be a top 3 player in the OTC market by 2020. Acquisition is one of the important routes to help us achieve our goal and in the last 6 months we have done two acquisitions in the consumer products business. The first one was the Littles baby care range of brands and second was the gastro-intestinal portfolio of brands from MSD. We believe these brands from Pfizer will fit our portfolio and also strategically help us move closer towards our stated objective,” said Nandini Piramal, executive director, Piramal Enterprises.
 
Kedar Rajadnye, COO - Consumer Products Division, Piramal Enterprises, added, “We expect these brands to leverage the strong sales and distribution capability that we have built over the years and help us improve our profitability margins as there will be higher fixed cost absorption. These four powerful heritage brands have a huge potential to become power brands in their respective categories.”