Kimberly-Clark focus
#Kimberly-Clark, a global FMCG Company and leader in health & hygiene products, is very bullish on long-term prospects in India, saying its focus is on new demand for its products from babies, youth and women as consumers in its broad-based market development plan for India.
The company is focus on providing quality diapers for babies, sanitary pads for women and repairing toilets in Government schools in India as part of its global sanitation campaign called “Toilets Change Lives,” stressed #Achal Agarwal, President for Asia Pacific at Kimberly-Clark.
“Babies, youth and women; we see them as India’s future,” said Agarwal who was honored with the #CNBC Asia Business Leader of the Year, a recognition for the best leaders in Asia.
“I am deeply honored and humbled to be awarded the CNBC Asia Business Leader of the Year 2016 which I dedicate to my team and is also testimony to Kimberly-Clark’s vision to improving the everyday lives of our consumers and contributing positively to the society and environment,” he said.
Describring Asia as the most promising growth market for the multinational, Agarwal highlighted Kimberly-Clark’s corporate social responsibility commitment in India, which includes restoring school toilets and driving behavior change among students towards open defecation.
Kimberly-Clark, he assured, is sensitive to the daily needs of Asians and takes into consideration cultural and habitual norms of every customer when designing its products. “We want to be a part of the #Swacch Bharat initiative and help meet the need of school toilets for students, especially girls as we see children as agents of behavior change” he said.
“Asia is Kimberly-Clark’s fastest growing and largest international business and we see future growth coming from Asia’s mix of developed and emerging markets,” underlined Agarwal, the first non-resident Indian business executive in the last decade to win the CNBC Business Leader of the Year Award.
India, with 25 million babies a year, accounts for US$350 million of the diaper category. Comparatively, China, with 19 million babies, accounts for US$3 billion of the category. “But among these growing markets, we expect faster expansion of our customer base in India,” added Agarwal, who is renowned for keeping “things simple and focus on agility” for a quick change to keep up with changing trends in the ever growing internet savvy-region.
Kimberly-Clark serves the Indian market from its Mumbai-headquarters and a Pune-based manufacturing facility, a producer of diapers for babies. Agarwal expects the manufacturing facility expansion based on market demand.
“We expect expansion of our products in response to market demand across India and Asia,” he said.
Currently, Kimberly-Clark has manufacturing facilities in all Asian markets; but it is keeping ahead of demand from new baby births and women empowerment.
“India’s demographics and economic growth will bode well for the growth of FMCG categories and Kimberly-Clark in the coming future,” added Agarwal. fii-news.com
