Mumbai: After launching the specialist Kaya skincare clinics in Mumbai recently, Marico Industries is now planning to extend its top brands into categories like skincare, possibly with the intention of pushing the new products at the clinics.

The company has chosen Parachute, Mediker and Shanti Amla brands to extend to other product categories like skincare. According to officials these brands were chosen because they are market leaders with strong brand equity.

For instance, Parachute is the leader in the coconut hair oil market and Shanti Amla has a 13-per cent share of the amla category by volume and enjoys the second-place position to Dabur Amla hair oil. Mediker has a monopoly hold in the anti-lice segment. Recently Marico extended its anti-lice hair shampoo brand Mediker into anti-lice oil as it felt shampoo was used primarily by those who want a quick and convenient solution to the lice problem. There are others who perceive shampoos to be harsh and don't want to wash their hair too often; for them oil is more appealing. Also, in India, hair oil is seen as an effective solution to hair problems, while shampoo is seen as being harmful.

Mediker is being positioned as a problem-solving brand and may be extended into areas like acne and scar treatment at the Kaya Clinics, say officials. The brand is expected to double its growth rate to 20 per cent by next fiscal.

Marico acquired the Rs 11-crore Mediker brand from Procter &Gamble a few years ago. The company has earmarked an investment of Rs 9 crore till March 2004 for the franchise of Mediker brand. Says a company official: ''Mediker oil will become as big a brand as the shampoo within the first year itself, considering oil is a much bigger market than shampoo.''

Parachute, the Rs 300-crore brand, has also been extended to other product categories. The recently launched variant Parachute Jasmine has been a success and has already registered a turnover of Rs 23 crore, according to the company.

Simultaneously, Marico plans to withdraw product variants that do not generate volumes. For instance, it recently withdrew the anti-dandruff oil from Parachute since it did not generate the expected volumes. Marico is also pushing Oil of Malabar, a low-volume brand, acquired from its sister concern Bombay Oil Industries, as a price warrior in the largely unbranded oil market.

Marico's strategy has been on increasing its presence across the entire hair oil and edible oil segments through launching value-added products and through brand and product extensions. At the same time the company has been tackling the unorganised segment through low-cost and small-unit packs.

While the coconut oil market size is estimated at Rs 750 crore, the unorganised segment is estimated at double its size. The company over the past one year has made a lot of progress in the value-added hair oil and problem-solving hair oil segments through Parachute Jasmine and Mediker (for anti-dandruff treatment) mainly because these offer greater margins compared to other segments.