• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• Business Line
• The Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

Kolkata , Jan. 3

THE mosquito repellent coil market on Tuesday witnessed the entrance of another major player - the city-based Eveready Industries India Ltd, through its newly launched `Eveready Poweron'.

The product was soft launched in the city today for the West Bengal market, and it was done by Mr B.M. Khaitan, the octogenarian Chairman of the company. It would be launched in other markets within 18 months.

According to Mr Deepak Khaitan, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of Eveready Industries, the company has plans to introduce a whole range of mosquito repellent products.

"We have started off with coils. We are planning to introduce the mosquito repelling vapouriser and also the aerosol cans. We would utilise our existing distributor network to reach out to the rural masses," Mr Khaitan told presspersons here today.

Leading players such as Reckitt Benckiser, Godrej and Jyothy Laboratories are already present in the mosquito coils market with their brands such as Mortein, Good Night and Maxo in that order. Mortein is a market leader with a share of 42 per cent.

Like the other players, Eveready Industries too would be outsourcing its product from another city-based company, Manaksia Ltd.

Mr Khaitan said that they are planning to introduce different fragrances, which are currently not available in the market. An R&D team is now working on it.

The Eveready product would be priced on a par with the other major brands. "We are not playing the price game. After all we are using the Eveready brand name, which signifies quality," he said.

He added that this was the first time that the brand Eveready has been extended to another product of the company other than battery. Even the packet teas of the company do not use the Eveready brand directly.

Mr Khaitan ruled out any chance of Eveready entering the mosquito coils production business. Instead, he added, other outsourced products may be added to boost the company's topline, which is expected to touch Rs 800 crore in March 2006.

According to him, the mosquito coil market is growing at a CAGR of 15 per cent. He put the size of the total mosquito repellent market at Rs 1,600 crore.

More Stories on : New Products & Services | Diversification

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
WorldSpace music at Coffee Day outlets

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line