Dabur, the fourth largest consumer goods company in India producing Ayurvedic herbal products, is launching new products in the Egyptian market amid an increase in sales by 15%, worth EGP 461m, according to head of Finance at Dabur Egypt Ashish Jasoria.
Dabur’s fiscal year depends on the fiscal year in India, which begins 1 April and ends 31 March.
As of March, in addition to the 15% increase in sales, Dabur also saw its profitability increase by around 35%.
Discussing the company’s activities over the past year and future plans, Jasoria noted that the government should reform taxes, improve the security situation, and work on bringing tourism back to its previous numbers.
Regarding taxes, Jasoria said improvements need to be implemented by the government, including the reduction of some direct taxes, which used to be 30% last year and is currently 22.5%.
Jasoria said the government needs to be faster with the tax reforms. He also said improving the security situation and tourism are essential for developing the country’s economy.
“An unsecure economic situation leads to inflation, so the customer is spending less on cosmetics,” said Jasoria. “This affects sales growth, which increased by 15% in the past year, whereas it increased by around 28%the year before last.”
As Dabur is importing substances from abroad in US dollars, this is leading to an increase in production costs of products sold in Egypt. “The devaluation of the Egyptian pound is putting us under pressure,” said Jasoria.
In terms of the expected growth in sales this year, Jasoria said Dabur Egypt is targeting an increase of 20% to 25%, and is launching new products. “We already launched Dabur’s Dermoviva brand in Egypt, including the Dermoviva Face Care range, which is the latest addition to the company’s portfolio in Egypt.”
Investments into Dabur’s factory in Egypt last year reached EGP 50m, and at the beginning of this year, Dabur Egypt opened its new administrative headquarters in New Cairo. This is part of the company’s strategic growth and expansion plan across the country and the region.
The company aims to target investments worth EGP 30m this year.
Jasoria commented that supplying energy to the Dabur Egypt factory in 10th of Ramadan has thus far not been a problem.
The only issue is that government increased the price of electricity by 20%, said Jasoria. To avoid this problem, Jasoria concluded that they are looking for alternative energy, such as gas and solar power.
