Marico Limited is an Indian multinational Consumer goods Company providing consumer products and services in the areas of health, beauty and wellness. With its headquarters in Mumbai, Marico is present in over 25 countries across Asia and Africa. It owns brands in categories of hair care, skin care, edible oils, health foods, male grooming, and fabric care. As of 2019–2020, the company generated a turnover of ₹7,315 crores. Marico has 8 factories in India located at Puducherry, Perundurai, Kanjikode, Jalgaon, Paldhi, Dehradun, Baddi and Paonta Sahib.

Leadership

Harsh Mariwala is the chairman and Saugata Gupta assumed the role of the managing director in March 2014 and is currently the MD and CEO of this organisation.

History

Marico Limited was established on 13 October 1988 under the name of Marico Foods Limited. Later, in 1989 the name of the company was changed from Marico Foods Limited to Marico Industries Limited. The first International office for Marico was set up in Dubai in year 1992. Marico was first listed on the Indian stock exchange in 1996.

Brands

The organisation holds a number of household brands such as Parachute, Parachute Advanced, Saffola, Hair & Care, Nihar, Nihar Naturals, Livon, Set Wet, Mediker and Revive. In the international market, Marico is represented by brands like Parachute, HairCode, Fiancée, Caivil, Hercules, Black Chic, Code 10, Ingwe, X-Men and Thuan Phat.

Parachute

Parachute is the flagship brand of Marico which consists of edible grade coconut oil. Marico manufactures and markets its coconut based hair oils under its brand – Parachute "Advanced" and a series of extensions thereof.

Others

Saffola is essentially blended refined edible oil. It is marketed under the names of New Saffola, Tasty and Active. All of them contain blended vegetable oils in various ratios. The main type of oils which are blended include rice bran oil, Kardi oil or safflower oil, corn oil and soya oil. Marico has a significant presence in Bangladesh, South East Asia, Middle East, Egypt and South Africa. In Bangladesh, Marico operates through Marico Bangladesh Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary. Its manufacturing facility is located at Shirirchala, in Dhaka Division.

Mineral oil in hair oil

Parachute "Advanced" hair oils contain around 50% (v/v) to 80% (v/v) mineral oil, along with coconut oil. Advanced Aloe Vera Enriched Coconut Hair Oil contains: Coconut oil (50% v/v), Mineral l (49.6% v/v), BHT, Aloe Vera extract & Perfume. Mineral oil is known to cause skin cancer. Even though highly refined oils (classified as Group 3) are not suspected to be carcinogenic, available information is not sufficient to classify them as harmless.

Shareholding Pattern

Marketing

NRI in the Middle East had been smuggling Parachute oil with them for their daily use when export of the oil was restricted prior to the 1991 economic liberalisation. Marico decided to try to sell products in that market after liberalisation, but found out that the Arab customers did not like the scent of coconut, wanted a less sticky hair product, and needed a product to counteract the high level of chlorination in their water. When Marico reformulated its product, its market share in the Middle East grew from 2% in 2002 to more than 20% by 2008.