In the year 1884, an ayurvedic expert Dr S.K. Burman from Kolkata(earlier known as Calcutta), started a pharmacy with the name Dabur to sell his natural medicines to cure diseases like cholera and Malaria. Da from Daktar(Local name given to the doctor) and Bur from Burman (from founder last name Burman) were combined to coin the word Dabur.
Dabur’s Early Stage
Dr Burman has the vision to provide better health facilities for all with the help of ayurvedic products. For the growth-related purposes, very soon, the company base was shifted from Kolkata to Delhi area. Currently, Dabur has its headquarter in Ghaziabad, India.
For quality check and mass production, in 1919, the first research and development lab of Dabur was started, in 1920, the first manufacturing plant was also begun. Second manufacturing plant in Faridabad was operational in 1972. The biggest R&D unit of Dabur was initiated in Sahibabad in 1979.
In 1993, for cancer patients, a new health care centre was started functioning in Buddi, Himachal Pradesh. In the early stage, the company was known as the family business of the Burman family but Dabur brought a revolutionary change later. In 1996, it became a public limited company. From 1998, they started hiring professionals actively for different operations of the company. Dabur was divided into three units- Health care, product division and Dabur ayurvedic.
Development Era
Dabur is having more than 250 products which are sold and distributed under 5 flagship brands:
Dabur for health care products, Vatikafor personal care products, Hajmolafor Digestive food products, Real for fruit juices and other beverages, FEMfor skincare products,
For diversifying their product range, Dabur acquired and merged with few national/international companies. In 2005-08, they acquired Balsara-hygiene and home products, H&B Retail Store, and FEM care products.
For global reach, Dabur acquired Hobby-A leading Turkish Cosmetic company in 2010 with a whopping amount of $69 Million. Namaste Lab-a Uk based company was acquired for $100 million. Ajanta Pharma was also bought by Dabur.
Dabur’s products are so strong that a single product can generate revenue in the range of 100 to 1000 crore.
Some of the Dabur products who have immense brand value include hajmola, Dabur Amla Hair Oil, Dabur Lal Tel, Real fruit juice, Dabur honey, pudin Hara, honitus and Dabur Lal toothpaste.
Revenue and Current Status
Among all ayurvedic companies, Dabur India Ltd is the most trusted and established brand. It has clients in 120 countries. In 2020, Dabur’s revenue is 89.89 Billion INR(US$1.3 billion).
As per Mint report, Packaged consumer goods company Dabur India reported a 19.6% jump in its profit for the quarter ended September. Net profit for the period stood at ₹482.86 crores against ₹403.64 crores reported in the year-ago period.
Consolidated revenue from operations for the September quarter stood at ₹2,516 crores, up 13.7% year-on-year.
The company’s domestic healthcare business, comprising Dabur honey, Dabur Chyawanprash, and Honitus, was up 49% during the quarter.
“Our domestic healthcare business reported a strong 49% growth, with the recent consumer-relevant innovations contributing to around 5-6% of our revenue. Our international business has also staged a smart recovery and reported a growth of 5.5% despite the key GCC market continuing to face macroeconomic headwinds,” said Mohit Malhotra, Dabur India Limited’s chief executive officer.
Competitors of Dabur
Gaining trust and keeping trust with customers should be a consistent approach of a company for long term survival and without a doubt, Dabur has mastered this skill very well to keep their competitors in check.
Patanjali, Colgate, Parle Agro, Himalaya Herbals, Baidyanath, Procter and Gamble, and Marico are some of the top competitors of Dabur.
Among them, Patanjali is the main competitor of Dabur. If we take an example of Dabur honey and Patanjali Honey, Dabur honey is having 6 months extra shelf life compared to its competitor Patanjali Honey which makes it popular among customers. Though in a recent quality test of 2020, both companies (including other 11 competitors company) honey products failed in the required parameters set by the tester.
On the other hand, Colgate toothpaste multiple variations like Colgate neem, Colgate salt etc compare to Dabur toothpaste basic version gives Colgate an upper hand.
Future Aspects of Dabur
Experts believe that Dabur has to show a growth of 15.66% in the coming 12 months with an expectation of 12% in annual revenue growth and 13.58% earning growths expected annually.
Surprisingly, Dabur doesn’t have much digital presence but with current amendments in the company, policies show a focus back on the digital revolution in the coming years. The company is planning to target young customers through these digital initiatives.
To support Prime Minister Modi Vocal for Local campaign, Dabur India has launched #Vocalforlocal series of campaigns for its various brands including ayurvedic Red toothpaste, Amla hair oil, Real fruit juices, Chyawanprash and Hajmola digestive tablets across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Since the company is on a mission to improve health and hygiene of rural India, Dabur took an initiative to construct 1200 toilets in 26 villages of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh in 2016-17.
“700 se 7 Kadam” toilet campaign for women dignity, “SUNDESH” for the education to underprivileged kids are some other initiatives started by Dabur for the betterment of the society.
