Dabur International Limited, the 100 per cent subsidiary of Dabur India Limited, will start its manufacturing unit and a joint venture in Pakistan during the current financial year.
"We have already signed a memorandum of understanding with Mueller and Phiedr and expect to commence operations within this fiscal," Arvind Kumar, chief executive officer of Dabur International, told a group of journalists from India.
The Pakistan market was about 12-15 per cent of the Indian market in a very broad sense. "We'll start with hair oil, Hajmola and progressively move on to shampoos and toothpaste," he said.
Asked about the growth prospects in Pakistan after commencing the joint venture, Kumar said the company expects significant growth as the joint venture was basically to move in a high tariff market to have a value addition in the destination country.
About meeting the fund requirements, Kumar said: "Since we are going with a joint venture it will be through Dabur India and the local partner. It (funding) will be basically through internal accruals and any requirement of fund will be met through parent company Dabur India Limited," he said.
Kumar said the company would rope in renowned Pakistani actors or actresses as brand ambassadors for promoting its brand in that country.
"We cannot run our advertisements endorsed by Amitabh Bachchan or Rani Mukherjee as of now, but in future we may use both of them," he said.
Asked whether the company would employ local people to maintain secrecy of its formulations in Pakistan, Kumar said, "It is not that we are going to appoint only local people. We would have some people from our existing locations and some would be appointed locally."
"We would like to protect our proprietory knowledge...there are ways and means to protect these knowledge and we will do everything possible," he said.