Good Hair Days For Godrej

The Argencos deal comes days after GCPL acquired Issue Group—comprised of Laboratoria Cuenca, Consell SA, Issue Uruguay and Issue Brazil—another regional hair care firm with revenues of more than $33 million in 2009.

“The acquisitions of Issue and Argencos are important steps in establishing our footprint in Latin America,” said A. Mahendran, director, FMCG portfolio cell. “We continue to stay true to our battle-tested approach of acquiring pioneering local brands with strong leadership positions in attractive geographies that have demonstrated an excellent track record of results and are run by seasoned management teams. These companies have a rich heritage of over a quarter of a century in serving the needs of the Latin American consumer through innovative and complementary offerings. We also believe that the opportunities for capitalizing on the strengths of these businesses across our entire hair colors business are significant.”

“Argencos is a perfect, complementary add-on to our earlier acquisition of Issue Group. I expect the combination of the two businesses to set us on a firm footing in achieving our plans for Latin America,” added Adi Godrej, chairman of GCPL. “Argentina and Brazil are leading vanguards of hair trends and innovations in hair care. We will have market leadership in many countries in South America including a presence in Brazil.”

According to Godrej, the acquisition represents another important step in the company’s plan to become a leading “emerging markets multinational and dovetails well with our global 3 by 3 strategy – presence in 3 continents – Asia, Africa and Latin America through 3 core categories—home care, personal wash and hair care.”