FMCG firms vie for hair care business

Chennai: Hair care has become a buzzing space for India’s fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies. While brand activation efforts in the previous quarters are helping some players, a few have been woken up by their low single-digit growth.

Godrej Consumer Product’s hair care brands witnessed a sales growth of 7 per cent year-on-year in the last quarter (Q4FY19), but the company’s sales growth could pick up in the current financial year from its disruptive innovations, feels Edelweiss Securities. “The company has launched Godrej Expert Easy 5 Minute Hair Colour. The USP of the shampoo hair colour is ease of use—the user needs to apply it like a shampoo and it colours hair in five minutes. This removes the barriers of perceived difficulty, time commitment of the colouring process and safety,’ finds Edelweiss.

Hindustan Unilever witnessed strong performance of its hair care segment in the FY19. According to Edelweiss, HUL sustained its strong growth momentum with new launches and activations throughout the year. TRESemmé, Dove and Indulekha reported robust growth. TRESemmé was relaunched with new packaging and a more fragrant formulation. During the year, Dove became leading hair care brand, as its shampoo and conditioner ranges were relaunched with higher Keratin Actives. Indulekha entered the shampoo category and has grown four-fold its acquisition size. Brylcreem launched an exclusive range of men’s grooming products for hair and beard.

Emami’s Kesh King grew by 15 per cent YoY in Q4 and 13 per cent YoY in FY19. Volume growth was 12 per cent for Q4FY19 and 13.5 per cent YoY for FY19. There is enough room for Kesh King to be sold through Emami-driven direct reach as wholesale is currently its largest channel. The 7 oils in one brand too grew 24 per cent YoY in Q4 and 29 per cent in FY19.

However, Dabur has seen a stunning decline in sales in the hair care segment and is making an effort to regain the lost momentum in the domestic market. The hair care segment grew by just 2.5 per cent for Dabur in Q4 FY19 against 23.6 per cent in Q3 FY19 and 8.8 per cent in Q4 FY18. Prolonged winter in North India and category slowdown impacted the company’s growth in the segment.

However, the company has become aggressive in the segment of late. “It is now offering 50 per cent extra almond hair oil with soya protein. This is, however, negative for (rival) Bajaj Consumer,” said Abneesh Roy, Senior Vice President, Institutional Equities, Edelweiss Securities. The company has also relaunched Sarson Amla Hair Oil and Brahmi Amla Hair Oil with improved packaging and formulation. Dabur Vatika too has witnessed significant brand activation.

Bajaj Corp was not far behind in brand activation. The almond drops hair oil (ADHO) relaunch activation continued in Q4. ADHO volume growth was 7.4 per cent for Q4FY19 and 5.8 per cent for FY19. Bajaj Cool Almond Drops, launched in March 2019, would extend Bajaj Almond Drops equity to the cooling segment, priced at a premium of about 20 per cent to ADHO. Among other hair oil brands of Bajaj, Brahmi Ayurvedic has performed better than Coco Jasmine.