Honasa Consumer Limited is weighing a hair color launch under another portfolio brand after rapid growth at BBlunt, in a category the company values at ₹7,000 crore to ₹7,500 crore.
On Friday’s earnings call, co-founder, chairman and CEO Varun Alagh said, “We are considering entry from another brand of ours.”
Honasa already sells hair color through BBlunt. Alagh said the brand’s hair-color portfolio grew more than 100% year over year following a relaunch last year. He described the category as moving from dye products toward crème formats and styling colors.
Honasa’s investor presentation estimates the category at ₹7,000 crore to ₹7,500 crore, excluding the unorganized market. It puts hair color’s share below 1% of India’s beauty and personal-care market, compared with about 5% globally, and says newer formats and propositions are growing at a mid-teens compound annual growth rate. The presentation also cites rising consumer searches for crème-based, natural and ammonia-free products. Its footnotes list McKinsey, Fortune Business Insights, IMARC and Euromonitor.
The company said its focus categories, including face cleansers, shampoos, serums, suncare, moisturizers, baby products and lipstick, grew more than 40% and accounted for over 80% of its business. Honasa also reported growth of more than 45% for younger brands and more than 20% in e-commerce.
Unaudited results for the quarter ended Sept. 30 showed consolidated profit after tax of ₹73.25 crore, up 86.7%, and revenue from operations of ₹731.19 crore, up 35.9%. Honasa’s quarterly profit and margin results were covered in an earlier report.
Honasa reported about 320,000 general-trade retail outlets, up 26% year over year, and more than 30% growth in average secondary sales per retailer. General-trade secondary sales and modern-trade offtake each grew more than 40%, according to the company. Alagh did not identify the brand or give a launch timetable.
