Dabur, the leading Indian FMCG company, is finalising an aggressive expansion plan for its business in the Middle East, which would see the company unveiling a major marketing campaign and online sales drive in that market, a top company executive has said.
“After India, Middle East is our major market. Though we faced some headwinds in that market in FY 19 because of the overall subdued market conditions there, the company’s aggressive marketing and distribution strategies have helped us to gain market share in most of the our products,” Mohit Malhotra, chief executive officer of Dabur India, told Arabian Business.
“We are currently in the process of finalising a more innovative marketing drive in the GCC and the wider Middle East market to build on the momentum in gaining market share across many of our product categories, especially in the hair oil and hair cream products,” Malhotra added.
Dabur International, the wholly-owned arm of Dabur India which runs the international operations of the Indian FMCG major, is based in Dubai. Dabur also has production facilities in Ras Al Khaimah.
The Dabur India CEO said the new growth plans for the company in the Gulf region would also see an aggressive push for online sales across several Middle East markets, besides entering new markets in the MENA region.
Dabur has already entered into tie-ups with Souq.com and LuLu for online marketing its products.
The Dabur India CEO said “BeThatGirl”, the company’s pilot marketing campaign for its hair oil brand Dabur Amla launched in the UAE market recently, will soon be extended to other markets as well.
The pilot “BeThatGirl” campaign, which encourages young girls to follow their dreams, has been rolled out with 50,000 kids in the UAE.
Dabur officials said the company has also achieved major success with its “ARISE (Apply Rinse and Shine)” campaign, aimed to encourage pre-shampoo usage of hair oil, with the company witnessing a rise in market share from 66.2% to 70.5% in Saudi Arabia.
The recent initiative of Dabur Amla Kids range, aimed at wooing younger consumers, is also billed to be a success, with its media campaign, “Adventures of Princess Amira”, generating 125 million views on YouTube.
Dabur officials said Dabur International recently undertook a major distribution restructuring where multiple distributor model was implemented in three countries in the Middle East.
Joint business planning discussions are also being entered into with the key retailers in both Saudi Arabia and UAE markets, the company officials added.
As part of its efforts to strengthen its Omni channel marketing strategy, Dabur International will increasingly focus on the ever-evolving e-commerce landscape in the Middle East, Malhotra said.
Most of the company’s products are now available on leading online portals such as Amazon.ae and also on webstores of leading retailers such as Carrefour and LuLu.
In line with its expansion plans, Dabur has also increased the production capacity at its Ras Al Khaima facility from 54,100 MT to 57,700 MT per annum in FY 19, company officials said.
“Besides, the company also recently undertook restructuring of manufacturing mixers and batch size increase in several products including Tooth paste, Hair oil, Vatika Conditioner, Hot Oil Treatment (HamamZaith), Face mark & ORS (Shampoo/Conditioner),” Dabur officials said
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