Godrej Consumer Products completes acquisition of Rapidol

Our Corporate Bureau
01 September 2006

Mumbai: Godrej Consumer Products Ltd has completed the acquisition of the South African business of Rapidol, UK, as well as its subsidiary Rapidol International. The company had entered into an agreement to acquire these entities subject to certain regulatory approvals.

"This acquisition is accretive for GCPL. It also gives us entry into the large and fast growing African hair colour market, ownership of strong brands and the opportunity to introduce our 'value for money' product portfolio in those geographies," said Adi Godrej, chairman and managing director of the company.

The Rapidol acquisition gives the company ownership of strong ethnic hair colour brands like INECTO and SOFLENE in ten countries. It also gives the company an opportunity to enhance its global presence through the Modern Trade Network and the ownership of customer listings of the INECTO and SOFLENE brands. Rapidol's distribution network is spread across South Africa and other African nations such as Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Swaziland, Ghana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Seychelles and Madagascar.

Further, this acquisition gives the company an opportunity to introduce some of its products which would include other hair colour offerings and the FairGlow and Evita soap brands in the African continent.

The company also proposes to derive further value from this transaction by leveraging its high quality yet low cost manufacturing skills to enhance the present offerings.

The INECTO brand is already owned by the company's subsidiary Keyline Brands Ltd in the UK and in 21 other countries. In 2005, INECTO enjoyed a 80 per cent share in the ethnic hair colour market in South Africa, and was the leading hair colour brand in several other southern African countries.