India’s beauty products industry undergoing a transformation. Skincare has eventually attained a certain amount of prestige and there is an overall interest amongst the Indian consumers to look good and better, opines Jaideep Khurana founder and director of Trumount Cosmeceuticals. In a conversation with Cosmedic India, Jaideep brings fresh perspectives about the industry and the latest trends. Excerpts of the interview.
What according to you is the size of the cosmetic products opportunity in India?
The Indian cosmetic products market that includes cosmeceuticals segment has reached about $6 billion in revenues. All the major global brands in skincare and other cosmetics segments are present in India. One of the fastest growing industries, cosmetics has been registering 25% to 30% growth year on year. A growing beauty consciousness fuelled by media is proving a boost to products across segments such as skin care, hair care etc.
Being available as over the counter (OTC) products without requiring a prescription, the demand for cosmeceuticals has grown phenomenally over the past few years. Today’s consumer knows that cosmetic products with medicinal properties are available and effective.
What are the key drivers for the growth of the cosmeceutical industry?
The beauty industry in India started posting high growth post liberalization. The crowning of Susmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai as “Miss Universe” and “Miss World” in the late 1990s provided a tremendous boost to the beauty products industry in India. The mathematics of beauty was gradually grasped by Indians and subsequently, we had quite a few wins.
The corporate sector recognized this opportunity as they could now easily market “Indian beauty” as a brand in the domestic market. There has been a significant growth in the number of companies emerging in the beauty industry thence. Awareness has taken little time, but now it’s happening. Social media has again promoted this to a great extent. There is a huge press on feeling and looking good. Self-grooming has become the new trends from the past few years.
The cosmetic culture has taken over. Women who contribute 35 per cent to 40 per cent of the corporate world along with men have boosted the market of beauty. Focus on self-grooming and image makeover has helped the “look good and feel better” market to grow faster than ever before. If you feel better about yourself, you have the confidence to face the world and every other thing around you will be better are the major forces behind this revolution.
Given such high growth in the industry, do you see any mergers and acquisitions happening in this space?
The world is shrinking. Consolidation by means of M&As is already underway. The business is also becoming structured, clean and sophisticated. With a uniform tax regime of GST in place, investments are bound to grow. With increased transparency in the entire system, the risks involved in business will also reduce greatly.
Indian companies are becoming more aware and structuring themselves by buying other brands. They are realizing the importance of joining the missing links and looking it as an opportunity to grow together. Synergies are already happening.
What are the key business challenges of the players in this industry?
Challenges are part and parcel of this industry. We faced a lot of issues when GST there was a lot of issues with its clarity.
Logistics is another big issue. Managing a huge distribution network is another challenge. Just in time inventory, shipment and channel management are the important aspects of business today than before.
Logistics industry in India is largely primitive. Your product is handled by unskilled staff even today. No matter how carefully you have packed and dispatched the product the labour handling it at the point of receipt will be in question. For instance, a few cosmetic products as we are aware can be damaged due to sunlight exposure. There is a need for frequent training workshops for handling the product at distribution channels and point of receipt. Uniformity of these guidelines needs to be maintained.
Are manufactures readily investing in trials or innovations of new substances & drugs?
In my opinion, Innovation has always been there since day one. The question comes where exactly have you positioned your brand and what is your focus area. AS brand ‘ Votre’ we are more into research and development. The technology in health and beauty is so advanced that it can leave the electronics industry behind. In the skincare segment, a new molecule introduced nearly every week.
Product manufacturers have to sense new opportunities and capture the emerging demand for their products. The vision you have for your product plays the key driver for innovation of new cosmetic and cosmeceutical products. As I foresee, research and development (R&D) will emerge as the backbone of Indian cosmeceuticals market in the near future.