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Colgate seems to soft pedal Cibaca

Reeba Zachariah in Mumbai

Faced with stiff competition and a slowdown in the oral care market, dental care major Colgate-Palmolive has begun to de-emphasise its Cibaca brand.

The company makes both toothpaste and toothbrushes under the Cibaca brand.

Analysts who track the fast moving consumer goods industry said: "The Cibaca brand was positioned at a low price point, aimed at attracting new users to upgrade to the category. But the brand now hardly has any presence nationally."

Leading distributors of Colgate-Palmolive too said: "The company is not focusing any more on the Cibaca brand and is pushing other products in its oral care portfolio. Hence, supply to the dealers' end has stopped."

The company has also taken off Cibaca advertisements in recent weeks. A Colgate-Palmolive spokesperson, when queried on the issue, replied: "We do not comment on speculation."

Colgate-Palmolive had acquired Cibaca from Ciba Giegy in 1994 for Rs 131 crore (Rs 1.31 billion), pipping arch rival Hindustan Lever Ltd.

But in 2000, it relaunched Cibaca and added the Colgate prefix. So this became Colgate Cibaca Top. The toothbrush range was launched as Colgate Cibaca Angular.

Colgate's main rival, HLL is also focusing on two key brands - Pepsodent and Close-Up - and has withdrawn a third, the low-end Aim, from the market.

Colgate now appears to following a similar strategy with its efforts channeled mainly into the flagship Colgate Dental Cream, Colgate Fresh Energy Gel, Colgate Herbal and Colgate Total. Also, Cibaca seems to have been cannabalising Colgate's other toothpaste brands at the low end of the price spectrum.

Cibaca has also been facing stiff competition from several regional players and new national entrants like Anchor.

Colgate-Palmolive's acquisition of Cibaca gave it access to toothpaste brands like Cibaca Top, Cibaca Fluoride and toothbrush brands -Standard, Angular, Deluxe and Transparent. Cibaca, at that point, was gaining marketshare sharply.

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