Marico says production at 2 Egypt units down by 70%

Personal care products maker Marico Ltd on Thursday said production at its two plants in Egypt came down by 70% due to the month-long political turmoil last month. The decrease in production will impact the company’s revenue in the ongoing quarter.

“We have two factories in Egypt and you know the situation in Egypt is still not absolutely back to normal. In the last one month, almost 60-70% of our production got impacted because we were closed for 10-15 days,” said Harsh C Mariwala, CMD, Marico Ltd.

“The share of this business would be about 5-7% of the total company. So it is not that large and maybe we will be impacted for one quarter,” Mariwala added.

The company had to shut the plants for a week in the beginning of February due to the large scale protests in Egypt. The Middle East and North Africa region contributes about Rs200 crore to the company’s revenues.

In 2006, Marico had acquired Egyptian haircare brand Fiancee. In February this year, the company had strengthened its presence in the male grooming segment with the acquisition of Vietnamese company International Consumer Products Corporation (ICP).

The company had acquired healthcare brand Ingwe in South Africa last year. Prior to that, it had also acquired a few other haircare and healthcare brands in the country. The company plans to acquire more brands in Africa and Asia.