By Ariba Shahid
KARACHI (Reuters) – Haleon Pakistan plans to start manufacturing multivitamin brand Centrum in the country for domestic sales and export, its CEO said, as it seeks to boost sales in the country amid lower inflation.
The Pakistan unit of British consumer healthcare firm Haleon plans to expand its pain management offerings next year by adding the Panadol range for menstrual pain and migraines, CEO Farhan Muhammad Haroon told Reuters in an interview.
“Pakistan has a 24 billion rupee ($86.30 million) Vitamin Mineral Supplement market. This does not include the grey market. We already make up 7.5 billion rupees ($26.97 million) of the market through our (vitamin) products CAC-1000 Plus and Qalsium-D,” said Haroon.
“With the launch of Centrum, we plan to capture 7 to 8% of the remaining market immediately, which is a sizeable portion of the category.”
Haroon said the company plans to sell Centrum in smaller bottles so customers do not have to worry about high upfront costs, as purchasing power has diminished in the country after inflation hit a multidecade high of around 40% last year. In November, Pakistan’s consumer price index inflation slowed to 4.9%.
Haroon said in the first stage of the Centrum launch, expected in the first quarter of 2025, the product will be imported, and in the second stage it will be made locally with market specific variants to suit needs of Pakistanis and other export markets.
“We already export our calcium and vitamin D supplement CAC-1000 Plus and topical pain relief product Voltral Emulgel to Vietnam and Philippines, we will be ready to export to 19 countries in the next 1-1.5 years,” he said.
Haleon Pakistan sees at least 10% of its sales coming from exports in the next two years, up from 5%-6% during its peak in 2022, Haroon said, adding that it had invested $10 million last year to enhance local production capabilities.
($1 = 278.1000 Pakistani rupees)
(Reporting by Ariba Shahid in Karachi; Editing by Michael Perry)
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