Mumbai: In a truly path-breaking move in the prevalent fast-moving consumer goods climate, Nirma has announced the exclusive marketing and manufacturing arrangement by which Nirma will bring Camay, one of the world's leading beauty soap brands, to the Indian consumer.

Nirma Consumer Care, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Nirma, obtained the license of the trademark Camay from Procter and Gamble Home Products (PGHP) for an undisclosed license fee with effect from 8 October 2002. The arrangement is valid for a rolling period of five years and covers toilet soaps.

Camay constitutes one of PGHP's leading brands among their portfolio and has been one of the oldest brands in the PGHP stable dating back to 1926. In this era, women prefer white soaps since many imported soaps have colours added to mask impurities. For many years, Camay was advertised as ''the soap of beautiful women.''

Camay was coined from the French word camee, which means cameo, the jewel. The brand was launched in India in December 1993. Camay is available to consumers across North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Nirma has an exclusive arrangement to manufacture and market Camay for the Indian market. Nirma's distribution and marketing strengths coupled with the ''strong legacy'' built by the company will infuse a fresh lease of life into the glorious history of Camay's brand equity.

Nirma chairman and managing director Karsanbhai Patel says: ''PGHP chose Nirma owing to our inherent core competencies. Nirma has always been a forward-looking company and with the introduction of Camay we have proven our unflinching commitment to our loyal consumers once again. Nirma is now truly ready to set a new paradigm for the 21st century India.''

Procter and Gamble Home Products director Shantanu Khosla says: ''Camay, a well-known toilet soap across the globe, also enjoys a strong equity among Indian consumers. We have decided to license Camay in India to Nirma in order to leverage its brand equity and realise its full potential in the Indian market.

''Procter and Gamble in India will continue to focus on and drive its four core categories - feminine care, healthcare, hair care and fabric and home care - as tremendous growth opportunity lie in these. Beyond these categories, we will look at opportunities like the Camay licensing arrangement to make our superior quality brands available to Indian consumers.''

Camay will be rolled out to retail outlets through out the country in a short span of one month. It is positioned as a premium product priced at Rs 13 for a 100-gm bar. The soap is white-coloured and has an excellent fragrance, which gives a unique soothing experience. Camay contains milk cream, saffron and glycerine as key skincare ingredients. It will be positioned as an international skincare soap that nourishes the skin and keeps it soft.

Nirma, a saga of enterprise, is a distinct example of successful Indian entrepreneurship. The journey of Nirma, which began as a one-man operation in 1969 with Karsanbhai Patel to a company with a turnover of Rs 2500 crore, has been exceptional. Today, 33 years later, Nirma is a household name. It is a brand with a leadership presence in detergents, soaps and personal care products and enjoys a strong and loyal consumer base.

Nirma created markets for its products and through its unique offering of value for money, Nirma converted a luxury into a necessity for Indian consumers. Nirma entered the toilet soap market in the early 90s and achieved a volume of 1 lakh TPA in a short span of time, resulting into a market share of 20 per cent.

The company's impressive and effective distribution system comprising two parallel channels for Nirma and Nima range of products has a strength of more than 2,500 distributors. The massive distribution networks makes Nirma products one of the widely distributed products in the diverse Indian market.