Godrej to focus on realty

Chennai, Sept 18: The $2.5-billion Godrej group is targeting a 25 per cent growth in sales every year and plans to double its revenue to $5 billion in the next three years.

The Group expects 15-20 per cent growth through an organic route and another 5-10 per cent growth from the inorganic route.

Revealing the group’s growth strategy here, the group chairman, Mr Adi Godrej, said the group would focus on FMCG and property development. In the FMCG segment, the company will grow “considerably through the acquisition” route. The group has constituted an FMCG cell headed by Mr A. Mahendran, managing director, Godrej Sara Lee, mainly for merger and acquisition activities.

The group is looking for those firms, which are engaged in the manufacturing of haircare products in India and developing countries like China, Indonesia, Brazil, Egypt and Africa.

The group’s real estate arm, Godrej Properties Ltd, is developing about 100 million sq ft space, mainly in the residential space across the country.

“Our real estate development model is different from the existing players. We share profits with property owners,” he said. The group, which has 100 manufacturing locations in India and abroad, moved some of its Indian facilities to the North-East or Himachal Pradesh due to tax advantage.