Sangeetha G

Chennai

CavinKare is considering hiving off its business division in the Gulf region into a wholly-owned subsidiary. The company is also ramping up food business in the overseas markets with its snack brands.

“We are evaluating the possibility of constituting local subsidiaries in the countries we export our products. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is one such region which we are evaluating,” Ramesh Viswanathan, executive director, CavinKare, told Financial Chronicle.

CavinKare already has a 100 per cent subsidiary in Bangladesh. CavinKare Bangladesh (CKBPL) has its sales, commercial and administrative team headed by a country manager. It manufactures Fairever Fairness Cream and Chik Shampoo through a third-party manufacturer.

Similar to Bangladesh, GCC contributes 20 per cent to the total overseas revenues for CavinKare. At present, the company exports personal care products to the Gulf countries. CavinKare has a different portfolio of personal care products for the overseas market.

“Fairever anti-ageing fairness cream and face-wash and Nyle hair oil is produced for the Gulf countries, while the Nyle moisturising lotion is for Sri Lanka. These respective countries have evolved markets for these products. They will be launched in India only when we are convinced of the market here,” said Vishwanathan.

CavinKare will soon launch the Chinnis Cruncho brand of south Indian snacks and Garden brand of snacks in the Gulf. “We will be exporting the Garden range of snack foods into markets with Asian population like in the US, Gulf, Singapore and Malaysia. Ruchi Pickle too is typically suited for the Indian palette and hence would be relevant only in markets with an Indian diaspora,” he said.

Food currently contributes 10 per cent to the total overseas sales and by next year this should be 15 per cent, he added.