Wipro consumer biz hits $1billion in revenue

BENGALURU: Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting (WCCL), part of the unlisted entity Wipro Enterprises, has entered the $1-billion-dollar revenue club. The company did Rs 6,630 crore, or just about $1 billion, in 2017-18. That’s a growth of 10% from last year, when it did $908 million.

WCCL CEO Vineet Agrawal had told TOI in February that a stronger foothold in Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia, and the continued gains of the Indian portfolio led by the Santoor and Chandrika brands have fuelled growth for the division. WCCL gets 50% of its revenue from international markets. Malaysia contributes a little over $145 million, and China $120 million. Indonesia, which had a sluggish first half, bounced back with a double-digit growth in the second half of last year, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

Rival Hindustan Unilever does a revenue of about $5 billion in India alone. ITC does $9.4 billion, but a lot of that still comes from cigarettes. Patanjali, which is just over ten years old, did a revenue of almost $1.5 billion in 2016-17 and was looking at doing $3 billion in 2017-18. Wipro’s consumer business was founded by the Premji family in 1945, when it sold vegetable oils. But in the 1980s, the focus became IT hardware and software. The consumer business was given renewed focus in the past two decades.

WCCL has over the years spent around $650 million on acquisitions, including $250 million that it spent on buying Singapore’s personal care products maker Unza Holdings in 2007. Two years ago, it bought Zhongshan Ma Er to get a strong foothold in the Guangdong (China) market.

Agrawal said the key driver of growth this year was the company’s ability to handle the GST transition in India. “We proactively engaged with our distributors and partners and clarified their doubts about GST. This gave us momentum in June-July 2017, leading to 18% growth in the India business in FY18. Distribution also improved especially post-GST implementation. Santoor and Garnet LED brands did particularly well,” he said.

Among its brands, Santoor is the biggest with a turnover of about $300 million, followed by female toiletry brand Enchanteur at $150 million. It has several $50-million plus brands including premium toiletry brand Yardley, male toiletry brand Romano, skincare brand Bio Essence, Halal skincare brand Safi and Garnett LEDs.

Last year, WCCL invested close to Rs 50 crore in New Delhi-based online consumer product firm Happily Unmarried to pick up about 20% stake.

To build the homecare portfolio, the company has test-marketed the Giffy brand of dish wash liquid in select states in India. In India, Safewash Liquid detergent intends to create newer consumption opportunities in the household laundry segment.