Wipro makes a Big Splash in Philippines acquires largest Filipino Personal care company

Acquisition of Splash Corporation includes its personal care brands — SkinWhite, Maxi-peel, Vitress

Bangalore. Wipro Consumer Care today announces that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Splash Corporation a Philippines Personal Care Company.

This transaction strengthens Wipro Consumer care portfolio in personal care and completes the South East Asian footprint.

Splash is the largest Filipino personal care player and amongst Top 5 in the Philippines market. It recorded revenues of USD 80 Mn last year. The Company has built iconic brands, namely SkinWhite – a strong brand in body lotions, Maxi-peel the numero uno brand of Exfoliants, Vitress – a leave on hair conditioner. These brands cover a wide spectrum of personal care categories and are in leading positions in respective segments in the country

Commenting on the transaction, Mr. Vineet Agrawal, CEO, Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting and Executive Director Wipro Enterprises said, “This is an exciting milestone for us – given our Vision of being amongst the top 3 players in Personal Care in Asia. Splash gives us a market leading position in the Philippines, which is one of the strong economies in the region and a formidable personal care market.

Brands of Splash overlap with and complement our portfolio. I see tremendous opportunity to further leverage the strengths of our manufacturing, R&D and sourcing for Splash brands. Splash has a strong and stable management team. They have built this business over the years. I find the team very passionate and entrepreneurial in nature.”

Commenting on the acquisition, Dr. Rolando B. Hortaleza, CEO and founder of Splash Corporation, said, “I am very glad that Splash is now part of the Wipro family. This gives us immediate access to resources and markets that will help us fuel faster and enable us to unlock the true potential of our brands. Furthermore, Wipro shares our focus of building strategy with local consumer insights, as well as emphasis on driving operational efficiencies.

We are confident that with Wipro’s marketing expertise and its international distribution network, we will significantly expand our geographical presence and take our brands to new heights.”

“This acquisition enables us to grow Wipro brands in Philippines market by leveraging Splash’s distribution strength across market segments.  Splash’s brands can be expanded further to other international markets where Wipro has a strong footprint and brands have latent equity. Splash brands are not only strong in the Philippines, but also have tremendous  equity in multiple international markets like Indonesia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Middle East and Nigeria.” states Mr. Nagender Arya, Regional Director (East Asia, Africa and Europe), Wipro Consumer Care.

Mr. Raghav Swaminathan, CFO, Wipro Enterprises, said, “This is our 11^th acquisition in consumer business and it reinforces our commitment to continue to invest in emerging markets to build a strong portfolio of local jewels that have created a niche market for themselves.”