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Godrej sees bright future for soaps business

Indian consumer products firm Godrej Soaps Ltd on Monday forecast higher growth for its soap business in the second half thanks to the success of a newly-launched brand.

The soaps division, which competes with multinational giant Hindustan Lever Ltd, saw a 17 per cent growth in sales in the first half of the current financial year 2000-01 (April-March), chairman Adi Godrej told a news conference.

"We expect it to grow much higher in the second half," he said, but declined to give profit details.

The Indian soaps market -- around Rs 35 billion in value terms -- is dominated by Hindustan Lever with a share of over 50 per cent.

Market growth has been low at between 2.0-3.0 per cent in the last few years largely due to high rates of penetration.

Godrej attributed much of the growth to the success of Godrej Fair Glow, a soap brand which clocked sales of Rs 760 million in one year till November 2000.

He said the firm has also improved its market share in the soaps market, but did not provide figures.

Godrej shares were 1.11 per cent higher at Rs 59.30 on Monday afternoon, while the Sensex was flat at 4,040.35 points.

Bombay-based Godrej Soaps makes soaps and hair-colour products and was a partner of US consumer products giant Procter & Gamble before they split in 1996.

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