Good market for personal care products:

Companies spend over Rs five billion

Harshini PERERA

Cosmetic import companies have spent over Rs five billion to import cosmetic products.

The annual imported shampoo market in Sri Lanka tops Rs 500 million.

People's purchasing power has been growing in personal care products after the liberation, of the North and the East.

But the floods will have an effect on the growing industry. It is optimistic that the market will pick up later.

At present the personal care product market is dominated by multinational companies and Dream Life Science a subsidiary of Raigam Group targets to capture 20 percent of the personal care products market in five years time.

The contribution from local companies to the personal care industry is less in Sri Lanka and Dream Life Science needs to grab the market with its new introduction of the Dazzling Nehara Shampoo, The Kingdom of Raigam joint Managing Director Ganaka Amarasinghe told Daily News Business.

It is the first time a personal care product is named after a celebrity in Sri Lanka.

Dream Life Science is carefully selecting raw material sources and tries to give priority to the local sources even though the majority of raw material is imported from countries such as India and the European market.

"We will be getting basic raw material locally while packaging and bottling will be done mainly from local sources," he said.

"Personal care products such as face cream and body cream will be introduced under the growing personal care product range of Raigam. We will also be introducing men's care products in the future," he said.

The production facility will be available not only for shampoo but also for baby diapers, tooth-paste and shaving cream in the future.