After Unilever, it is now the turn of US-based consumer products major Procter & Gamble to look at outsourcing opportunities in India. The company is looking at Whisper sanitary napkins and Metamucil among other products to be sourced from India.
Metamucil is one of Procter & Gamble's leading brands in the US. In India, a similar product is commonly called Isabgul, a byproduct of Psyllium.
"Procter & Gamble has been sourcing Psyllium from India, and is now considering making the product here to save on costs of shipping it to the US," Shantanu Khosla, managing director of Procter & Gamble India, told Business Standard.
Khosla said: "Procter & Gamble sees outsourcing from India as a big opportunity to lower manufacturing costs. There are opportunities in engineering, fabrication and research and development too." He, however, refused to set a time for outsourcing.
Khosla said engineering products would soon be sourced from India instead of Japan.
The company, which makes Tide detergent and Pantene shampoo, is also looking at exporting Whisper sanitary napkins from India to the Association of South-East Asian Nations. The $40 billion company has operations in over 80 countries, and offers over 300 brands.
Currently, Procter & Gamble US sources over Rs 375 crore (Rs 3.75 billion) of products such as raw material and packaging material and services such as research and development, engineering and information technology from India.
