This case study is based on our video interview of R.S. Agarwal and R.S. Goenka, co-founders of Emami Limited and Emami Group.
How does one turn a borrowed investment of ₹20,000 in 1974 into a turnover of over ₹1,800 crore in a matter of three decades? The answer lies with childhood buddies R.S. Agarwal and R.S. Goenka, the founders of the Emami Group. They started off by selling women’s beauty products and eventually ventured into other sectors. With an aggregate group turnover of over ₹8000 crore, today the Emami group has invested in FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods), newsprint, writing instruments, edible oil and cultivation, bio-diesel, healthcare, contemporary art, retail pharmacy, cement, real estate, and retail. The group’s core strength is its ingrained value system, its innovativeness and over 20,000 passionate and dedicated staff, engaged in knowledge sharing.
The uniqueness of their strategising can be understood through the three phases that Emami went through:
Emami’s Unique Brand Ambassador Strategy: Emami successfully established its brands through strong celebrity endorsements. It has had over sixty celebrities since the early 1970’s. It has made brand investments of over ₹1,000 crore in the last five years. Emami’s Guerrilla Marketing Strategy: Emami launched Fair and Handsome, India’s first men’s fairness cream in 2005. It has become the pioneer and undisputed market leader in the men’s fairness cream category with a market share of 57 percent. (Source: A.C.Nielsen.)
The Zandu Acquisition: Emami Limited with an investment of ₹730 crore acquired a major stake in the Zandu Pharmaceutical Works Ltd on the basis of huge business synergy between Zandu and Emami.
Today, Emami Limited is led by R.S.Agarwal and R.S.Goenka with the help of the second generation promoter directors from the two families. A qualified and dedicated set of professionals run the day to day operations of the company.
The Indian FMCG sector is the third largest in the Asian economy with a total market value of $13.1 billion (see Table 6.1). The urban Indian consumer spends less than the rural consumer due to inflation, subdued salary hikes and decelerated economic growth that affected real wages and sentiment. In turn, this slowdown affected the FMCG sector and going ahead, sectoral growth is expected to come from rural dwellers with higher incomes from the direct cash transfer scheme.
‘The foundation for sustained profitable growth is derived from a three-pronged strategy:-Ayurvedic pedigree, significant brand building investments and reaching out to new demographic groups’
R.S.Goenka (left in the given picture) and R.S.Agarwal*
Table 6.1 Classification of Indian FMCG market (non-durable)
Population: India with a vast population of 1.27 billion (approximate) and annual growth rate of around 1.58 percent provides a large consumption base with growing potential.
Income: India’s per capita has income increased by 11.7 percent from ₹61,564 in 2011–12 to ₹68,747 in 2012–13, reflecting higher purchasing capability. Around 50 percent of India’s households earn more than $3,300 translating into double-digit sectoral growth in the past couple of years. While the mean income in urban Indian households has declined by three percent and increased by six percent in rural India.i
Rural market: Rural India comprises around 70 percent of the total Indian population, out of which 40 percent constitutes the country’s FMCG market. With the changing lifestyles and increasing consumer demand, India’s FMCG market is expected to grow to $80 billion by 2016, especially in towns with an average population of 10 lakh or less.ii Rural spending was significantly higher at ₹3,75,000 crore ($69.44 billion) than urban consumption levels which stood at ₹2,99,400 crore ($55.44 billion) between 2009 –10 and 2011–12; rural consumption per person outpaced that of its urban counterpart by two percent.iii
Urbanization: About 30 percent of India is urban, accounting for about 11 percent of the world’s urban population. India’s urban population is projected to be 600 million in the next few years and an estimated 700 million by 2030, ensuring consistent market growth for FMCG companies in Indiaiv
Formats: Modern retail formats have catalysed the growth of the FMCG sector, capitalising on marketing, advertising, packaging and distribution.
Youth: India’s workforce (between 15 and 64) is expected to rise from 64 percent of its population in 2009 to 67 percent in 2020 and 250 million people are set to join India’s workforce by 2030 with a proportionate increase in disposable incomes and conspicuous consumption.
Low penetration: India’s FMCG penetration is low compared to other countries and its rural penetration even lower than urban even as the rural population is higher, resulting in a large untapped FMCG potential.
Optimism: India’s FMCG sector is expected to continue reporting attractive growth, riding a growing market relatively unaffected by recession, inflation or currency devaluation. The Indian government’s agricultural support will drive long-term consumption growth and as a result, the FMCG industry is expected to report 18 percent growth annually over the next few years. It is expected that this sector will grow to a projected $33 billion by 2015 and $100 billion by 2025, emerging as the biggest consumer expenditure component by the end of the Twelfth Five Year Plan.v
With an aggregate group turnover of over ₹8,000 crore, today the Emami Group is invested in FMCG, newsprint, writing instruments, edible oil and cultivation, bio-diesel, healthcare, contemporary art, retail pharmacy, cement, real estate, and retail. The group’s core strength is its ingrained value system, its innovativeness and over 20,000 passionate and dedicated staff, engaged in knowledge sharing.
The key businesses of the Emami Group are:
Emami Limited, the flagship company of the group, is a ₹ 1,821 crore business entity, (as on 31st March 2014), a leading player in the personal and healthcare consumer products industry in India, engaged in manufacturing and marketing health, beauty and personal care products that are based mainly on ayurvedic formulations (see Figure 6.1).
Figure 6.1: Emami in the News
Emami Limited has over 250 products under its portfolio. The focus is on providing consumers with innovative products which are capable of meeting their multiple needs and adding value by enhancing the quality of day-to-day life.
By repeatedly outperforming the industry standard, Emami Limited has maintained a CAGR of 23 percent over the last few years. The power brands of the company are Boroplus, Navratna, Fair and Handsome, Zandu Balm and Fast Relief (see Table 6.2).
The Marketing strategy of brands produced by Emami have tradionaly relied on consumer insight, demand and aspirations.
Table 6.2 Range of Emami’s Power Brands
While Boroplus brand is the market leader in the antiseptic cream segment, Navratna Oil holds the pole position in the cool oil segment. On the other hand, Fair and Handsome is the pioneer in the ‘fairness cream for men’ segment and is the market leader. Emami’s products in different categories like cool oil, antiseptic cream and fairness cream for men have carved a niche for themselves in their respective segments. All power brands of Emami enjoy over 50 percent market share in their respective categories. Power Brands, viz., Boroplus Antiseptic Cream, Navratna, Fair and Handsome, Zandu Balm, Menthoplus and Fast Relief along with extensions contribute over 80 percent of Emami’s sales. The other brands like Sona Chandi Chyawanprash, Mentho Plus and Malai Kesar Cold Cream are also doing well in their respective categories.
Brand extensions have helped Emami consolidate its position in the market and also cater to varied consumer needs. The Company follows the strategy of extending brand equity through subsegmentation of the core brand, hence expanding market reach (see Table 6.3).
Table 6.3 Segmentation of Two Power Brands of Emami
The power brands dominate their respective segments with relatively low competitive intensity (see Table 6.4), emerging as the number one brand in the country.
Figure 6.2: Emami Limited Business Model
Table 6.4 Emami-Market Share of Power Brands
Emami covers all the states with five regional sales offices and 32 depots across India. Its supply-chain management assumes immense significance which was aptly reflected through remarkable expansion in dealer-distribution network, outlets and manpower. According to the Annual Report 2013–2014, the domestic sales and distribution division directly covers six lac retail outlets and indirectly covers over 4 million retail outlets all across the country. Emami’s products reach out across the length and breadth of India through 3000 distributors and 5600 sub-distributors (see Figure 6.3).
Figure 6.3: Emami in India
Export revenue increased by 13 percent from ₹165 crore in 2010 –11 to ₹187 crore in 2011–12. The company maintained market leadership position for Fair and Handsome in Bangladesh, Nepal and UAE and for Boroplus in Russia and Nepal. Emami’s quality products have deeply impacted the Indian market and also left a deep imprint in over 60 countries across the world including the Gulf countries, UK, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Africa and the CIS countries. Emami Limited has five non-listed overseas subsidiary companies, namely Emami UK Ltd., Emami Bangladesh Ltd., Emami International FZE., Emami Overseas FZE (a 100 percent subsidiary of Emami International FZE) and PharmaDerm S A E Co., Egypt (a 90.59 percent subsidiary of Emami Overseas FZE).
The company has modern manufacturing facilities at Kolkata (West Bengal), Abhoypur and Amingaon (Assam), Pantnagar (Uttarakhand), Dongri (Maharashtra), Silvassa (Dadra and Nagar Haveli) and Vapi (Gujarat). It has adopted the Total Quality Management system and all its manufacturing facilities are ISO 9001:2008 certified and GMP compliant. The Amingaon, Abhoypur and BT Road (Kolkata) unit received the ‘Par Excellence Award’ and the Pantnagar unit received the ‘Excellence Award’ in the All India Competition in the National Convention on Quality Circles conducted by National Quality Council.
Emami has successfully established its brands through strong celebrity endorsements. It is the only corporate entity in the country to have both Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan (for Navratna Cool Oil) along with other celebrity endorsers, such as Kareena Kapoor, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Saina Nehwal and more. The concept of brand endorsement by celebrities has been successfully experimented in case of most of the brand launches. For decades Emami has harnessed star-power which has worked in their favour to gain both brand value and high revenue. While most brands are content with one, two or even three celebrities endorsements, Emami thinks otherwise. In fact, quite a few brands in its portfolio, like Navratna, Boroplus, Fair and Handsome and Fast Relief have multiple endorsers. A few of years ago Emami entered the edible oil space and the brand Healthy and Tasty already has four endorsers, which include various regional celebrities.
According to Emami’s Director, Aditya Agarwal, there is no fear of celebrity fatigue. ‘When people were exploring the idea of celebrity endorsers we were already a few steps ahead. Today other brands have one or two celebrities; we have multiple celebrities because each has a quality that appeals to certain target consumer.’ The company’s well-crafted practice of using celebrities and particularly movie-stars, since 1974, has certainly paid off. From the very beginning, Emami has mastered the art of celebrity endorsements, such as actress Rekha for Emami Vanishing Cream. The company has had over 60 celebrities since the early 70s and signed on 30 names between 2009 and 2011, some would say a conservative figure by Emami standards perhaps.
Every year Emami sets aside ₹5 to ₹15 crore for its celebrity shopping list, the number depending entirely on the brand looking for an endorser match and the star face Emami has its eye on. (In 2012–2013, they invested ₹279 crore in advertising and communication, which is 15.75 percent of total revenues.) 2010 was also the year the company made headlines again for the role its brand played in another Bollywood film (Dabaang) that had everyone from six to 70 year olds talking about Munni and Zandu Balm. Interestingly, they sued the makers of the film for using the brand name in this prime specimen of item numbers. A compromise resulted in a win-win situation where Munni (a chatacter portrayed by Malika Arora Khan in the film) appeared in an ad campaign aimed at attracting the young consumers. In fact, Emami’s annual report 2010–2011 begins with the line ‘Main Zandu balm hui darling tere liye.’
Figure 6.4: Celebrity Endorsements by Emami
Emami has become the pioneer in the men’s fairness cream category. It was observed that around 30 percent of the fairness cream market in 2005 was for men. Since men were more exposed to outdoor activities, they needed a special product for their skin. Emami understood their need and came out with Fair and Handsome, the first fairness cream for men in the country. Fair and Handsome has a unique five–power formula including double strength peptide complex, double powered sun guard, anti- bacterial components, natural complex and cooling herbs, which enhances and rejuvenates skin fairness in just four weeks. With its brand ambassador, Shahrukh Khan, Fair and Handsome now enjoys leadership in men’s fairness cream segment with a market share of 57 percent:
Figure 6.5: Launch of Fair and Handsome
The company now looks to increasing the market share and take initiatives to enhance category growth. It is also exploring opportunities to launch other grooming products for men. Despite the onslaught of competitors, Emami’s Fair and Handsome maintained its leading position in the men’s fairness cream segment. The brand’s major competitors are Fair and Lovely Max Fairness, Garnier Men and Vaseline for Men.
Emami’s entrepreneurial success has been derived from a culture of taking fearless risk during the 2008–2009 slowdown. Even when the global economy plunged into a downturn in 2008, Emami embarked on the biggest acquisition in India’s FMCG space. The company invested ₹730 crore in the acquisition of the Zandu Pharmaceutical Works Ltd. Emami acquired a controlling stake of 73 percent in the Zandu Pharmaceutical Works Ltd, which is a renowned Ayurveda, over-the-counter health care products company. This acquisition was a win-win situation for both companies in terms of having a common culture, values and product development process. For decades, Zandu had been India’s most trusted ayurvedic company owning popular brands (Zandu Balm, Zandu Chyawanprash) and a host of ethical and generic products (Zandu Pancharishta, Trishun, Sudarshan, Triphala, Satavarex and Zandopa, among others). Emami, was growing aggressively, thanks to strong brand equity, penetrative distribution network, innovative RandD, aggressive marketing and dynamic management. The combination of Zandu with Emami would help in growing the trusted Zandu brands aggressively, extending synergic benefits to Emami as well.
Complementary opportunities, resulting in a mix of the traditional and modern ways of doing business, Zandu’s age-old ayurvedic wisdom could be effectively applied with Emami’s innovative and modern scientific practices to cater to growing consumer needs in health and the personal care segment, leading to accelerated revenues. Common real estate interests of Emami and Zandu, which, if given focused attention, could develop into significant revenue-generating segment. Emami besides its FMCG business also had an exposure towards realty through its subsidiary, Emami Realty Ltd. Zandu also possessed real estate as a part of its non-core business in addition to its longstanding FMCG business. To unlock value and synergise operations, the consolidation of FMCG and real estate businesses of both the companies, separately was crucial.
The scheme was structured under the guidance and supervision of the experts of respective fields like M/s. J. Sagar and Associates, M/s. Bansi S Mehta and Co, M/s. ICICI Securities Ltd., M/s. Microsec Capital Ltd., M/s. Anand Rathi Financial Services Ltd. and the auditors M/s. S.K. Agrawal and Co.
Following the merger of the FMCG and realty businesses under separate companies, aggressive and focused growth was expected for both businesses. Over the preceding years, Emami grew attractively on account of its strong recall, cost – effective operations, product innovation and brand building. Zandu, on the other hand, grew steadily. To realize Zandu’s latent potential and complementary synergies, Emami acquired and merged Zandu’s FMCG business. The merged entity was poised to grow faster as a result of deeper pan-Indian distribution channels, enhanced operational efficiency, stronger supply-chain, innovative product branding and functional integration. This accelerated the growth of robust Emami brands on the one hand and evolved Zandu brands from the ‘maintenance’ to ‘building’ mode on the other. As a consequence, Emami’s revenues strengthened from ₹583 crore in 2007–08 to ₹1454 crore in 2011–12.
Prior to the acquisition of Zandu, Emami provided a wide brand offering. Following the acquisition, the offering got wider and richer. The consolidation of Emami and Zandu strengthened the value-formoney proposition. For instance, Emami power brands like Boroplus Antiseptic cream, Navratna Oil, Fair and Handsome Fairness Cream, Sona Chandi Chyawanprash, Himani Fast Relief, Menthoplus Balm and others were complemented by the Zandu portfolio of robust Ayurvedic products like Zandu Balm, Zandu KesariJivan, Zandu Chyawanprash and effective ethical and generic products like Sudarshan, Trishun Pancharishta, Triphala, Satavarex and Zandopa among others. Besides, the consolidated distribution network made it possible to place Emami and Zandu products across a wider format across the globe at a lower cost, leading to greater affordability and wider availability. Emami’s ₹730 crore acquisition of Zandu, the then largest in India’s FMCG industry, leveraged the strength of the company’s balance sheet without compromising its ability to service the ongoing or prospective interests of its shareholders.
The acquisition was funded by a judicious mix of debt and internal resources. Thereafter, the mobilization of Qualified Institutional Payment (₹310 crore) neutralised a large part of debt. Going ahead, the enhanced earning of 2009–10 pared net debt down to less than ₹100 crore in 2009–10 and completely eliminated all debt by 2010–11.
The Timeline of the Emami’s-Zandu Acquistion Saga
Emami Limited valued the headquarters of Zandu Pharmaceutical Works Limited in Dadar, Mumbai at ₹350 crore, when in June 2008 it announced its unsolicited bid to acquire a controlling stake in the 98-year-old herbal health care company. ‘That was at the height of the real estate boom. I can’t say how much the property is worth now,’ says Emami Chairman R.S. Agarwal, who despite the downturn in the economy does not regret his decision to pay as much as ₹730 crore for a 73 percent stake in Zandu. ‘When you buy something, you buy a long term value… being in a similar line of business, we knew the intrinsic value of Zandu.’
Towards the end of May, Emami concluded the deal after protracted negotiations to acquire a 23.6 percent stake from Dev Kumar Vaidya and his sister Anita Vaidya (whose great grandfather Jugatram Vaidya founded Zandu Pharmaceutical Works in October 1910). In keeping with Indian takeover laws, Emami made an open offer of 20 percent more, kicking off a battle with the Parikh brothers, who had been managing the operation of Zandu for several years.
‘It was not simple. The youngsters were concerned we were paying too much, but R.S. Goenka [who] has immense respect for me, told them they couldn’t foresee everything that I could foresee. Finally the unit [Zandu] was taken over.’ says R.S. Agarwal. Another important acquisition was the Zandu foundation, which was not part of the company. The foundation has some labs and had done a lot of research and development in ayurvedic products. The major part of the funds for the Zandu acquisition came from internal accruals. Around 30 percent of the total money paid (around ₹225 crore) came from long term and short term debts.
In his first media interview since the takeover of Zandu was concluded, R.S. Agarwal said his sons, Harsh Vardhan and Aditya, who are the directors of Emami, were at times sceptical about the price that Emami eventually paid for Zandu. ‘There was a lot of arithmetic, a lot of calculations,’ says Agarwal, but in the end he managed to prevail over his sons because of the support of his partner, Emami’s Co-Chairman, R.S. Goenka, who persuaded the Agarwal siblings to trust his judgement.
Harsh Vardhan Agarwal was the main force behind the takeover. ‘In the end everything was settled amicably. All the while, we were discussing strategy, and I used to have all my calculations written in a piece of paper. We used to meet at 8:30 in the morning to discuss strategy. It was such an innovative deal… some day it would be a case study!’
CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) builds a dynamic relationship between a company on one hand and the society and environment on the other. Though still a voluntary activity, CSR is traditionally driven by a moral obligation and philanthropic spirit. Along with charities and philanthropic activities Emami is engaged in a number of sustainable activities. The main aim is to fight against hunger, ignorance and disease, apart from addressing environmental concerns.
As a long-term measure, Emami plans to introduce women empowerment programmes (livelihood, training and mentoring). Udayan Care (West Bengal) implemented a programme to mentor girl children from under-privileged sections. Emami sponsored 30 girl students (2007–08 to 2012–13) in the Udayan Shalini programme.
Emami believes that true social service lies in being beside people during natural calamities and accidents. Last year, the Company stood by the flood-affected people of Guwahati. The company provided disaster relief through employee volunteering, supply of construction materials (including temporary roofing materials, medical and food supplies, clothes and relief material).
The Community Marriage Programme is a unique effort in relieving poor families of the financial burden involved in arranging marriages. The couples were chosen from inaccessible areas like the Sunderbans and other rural areas, giving Emami the opportunity to reach out to the rural poor in initiating socio-economic development. On a recent occasion, the married couples were given gifts like a solar powered device, ideal in rural areas.
Emam’s Food for Poor programme was operational in the vicinity of its factories at BT Road, Kolkata, Guwahati, Panthnagar, Masat, Dongari and Vapi.
Emami provided funds for the construction of 44 houses for the rural poor in 2012–13.
Emami contributed to organisations dedicated to animal care and protection.
Emami believes in sarvalokahitam, which indicates the well-being of all stakeholders. Following the teachings of The Vedas and Upanishads, Emami undertook charitable programmes through its Food for Poor programme and the Community Marriage Programme. It undertook initiatives in sport and culture activities as well.
Figure 6.6: CSR in Emami
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