The Hindu : Business : Eveready getting into property deals

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Thursday, May 05, 2005

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Business

Eveready getting into property deals

Special Correspondent

Brand extension plans will crystallise in the next three months

KOLKATA: The demerged Eveready Industries India Ltd. (EIIL) is, in its centenary year, planning to extend the brand to other products while weighing its options on `unlocking value' by striking deals over its properties in Chennai, Hyderabad and Noida, EIIL Managing Director, Deepak Khaitan, said.

Mr. Khaitan said the Eveready brand had been valued at Rs. 600 crores by Ernst & Young. "Brand extension plans will crystallise in the next three months and a cell has been set up to look at diversification," Mr. Khaitan said.

Following the demerger, EIIL has become a fast moving consumer goods company dealing in batteries, flashlights and packet tea.

EIIL was planning to jack up its market share from the 46 per cent now to 50 per cent, he said. The industry, with a 12 per cent growth rate, has five players.

Unwilling to divulge the segment where the brand would be extended, Mr. Khaitan hinted that it was a battery-consuming sector and was now dominated by a multinational. On the Greendale brand, also owned by EIIL, Mr. Khaitan said eatables under the brand would be rolled out in early 2006.

"The plan is to increase the share of non-Eveready business in the company's turnover from 10 per cent to 25 per cent."

He later addressed a conference in Goa to mark the company's centenary year, Mr. Khaitan exhorted his sales force to surpass the industry growth rate, selling two billion batteries in 2005 against 1.2 billion in 2004. On land sale, he told reporters that following the success that EIIL had had with its sale of the Guindy property in Chennai, it has been weighing its options on entering into deals "either through joint ventures, outright sale or on their own."

A total of 42 acres has been identified at Chennai, Mona Ali in Hyderabad and in Noida."

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