0:05

Homegrown startup beauty brands have

0:07

been on a role in

0:09

India. Scores and scores of

0:11

new-age skin care brands have

0:13

cropped up since the pandemic,

0:15

and all of them hop

0:17

on the science of skin

0:19

care. And their whole appeal

0:21

is transparency. Transparency about ingredients

0:23

that go into each of

0:25

their products. And among all

0:27

of them, minimalist is the

0:29

one that really stands out.

0:31

It is an active ingredients-based-based

0:34

skin care company. So it

0:36

sells things like near cyanamide

0:38

for brightening, retinol for fine

0:40

lines, vitamin C, glycolic acid,

0:42

salic acid, and so on

0:44

and so forth. It launched

0:46

around the end of 2020

0:48

and within a span of

0:50

eight months it built a

0:52

1,000 craw rupee business. And

0:54

what's even more surprising is

0:56

that the brand has remained

0:58

in the green, meaning profitable,

1:00

from the very first month

1:02

itself. For years legacy brands

1:04

like Pregacy Brands like Ponce

1:06

and L'Oreal and H-U-L have

1:08

been selling products with similar

1:10

ingredients. The only difference is

1:12

that they either did not

1:14

launch them in India or

1:16

they kept the names of

1:18

the ingredients hidden away in

1:20

tiny fonts at the back

1:22

of the bottles. It was

1:25

minimalist that came around and

1:27

broke that mold. And now

1:29

seeing the success of brands

1:31

like Minimalist, legacy brands are

1:33

rethinking their strategy. Case in

1:35

point. Hindustan Unilever. The company

1:37

has been wanting to turn

1:39

its beauty and well-being portfolio

1:41

into a high-growth premium category

1:43

for a while now. And

1:45

the acquisition of minimalist is

1:47

a big step in that

1:49

direction. But how did a

1:51

brand-like minimalist manage to do

1:53

something that a giant-like H-U-L

1:55

could not? Welcome to Debray,

1:57

a business podcast from the

1:59

Ken. I'm your host Nakda

2:01

Sharma and I don't chase

2:03

the new cycle. Instead. of

2:05

the week, my colleague Rahil

2:07

Philipos and I

2:10

will come

2:12

to you

2:14

with one

2:16

business story

2:19

that is

2:21

worth understanding

2:23

and worth your

2:26

time. It is one

2:28

of minimalist star products. Even

2:30

co-founder Mojit Yadav uses it

2:32

for his skin care routine.

2:35

So what exactly is near

2:37

cyanamide? It is actually a form

2:39

of vitamin B3 and it is

2:41

present in the food that you

2:43

eat in your greens and your

2:45

eggs, fish, etc. etc. When

2:47

used on skin it reduces

2:50

inflammation and it also helps

2:52

with brightening. But guess what?

2:54

This anamide is the hero

2:56

ingredient in your pawns light

2:58

moisturizer and also in OLE's

3:00

total effects face moisturizer. The difference

3:03

is that minimalist names the

3:05

chemical up front. In fact,

3:07

minimalist product is named

3:09

after the chemical itself.

3:12

So is this minimalist success

3:14

formula? My colleague, Nuhab

3:16

Vére, asked Anish Shet, the

3:18

co-founder of Dr. Shet, a

3:20

domicutical skin care company. He

3:23

said it is nothing new really. Minimalist

3:25

is a high quality brand that comes

3:27

at a low price, which is what

3:30

Indians love. So yes, it has hit the

3:32

bullseye. It came in at the right time,

3:34

at the right place and with the

3:36

right kind of messaging. This was a

3:38

time when skincare was all

3:40

about natural ingredients. And that

3:42

is because no beauty in

3:44

personal care brand was ready for

3:47

a conversation about chemicals that

3:49

they were using. Plus a

3:51

big myth that chemicals are bad

3:53

got busted. We spoke about

3:55

this extensively in our first

3:58

special Friday episode. and I

4:00

will link it to the show

4:02

notes of this one. So when

4:05

Minimalis launched its products during the

4:07

pandemic, the market was ready for

4:09

it. Noa spoke to the co-founder

4:12

Mohat Yadav and he told her

4:14

and I'm quoting, initially they felt

4:16

that it would take a lot

4:18

of time to create awareness and

4:21

educate people about actives in skin

4:23

care. But there were a large

4:25

number of customers already. So the

4:28

zero to one journey was not

4:30

very challenging. The company also has

4:32

the advantage of controlling prices of

4:34

most of its products in the

4:37

300 to 700 rupees range because

4:39

it manufactures them in-house. Now this

4:41

is a huge advantage for its

4:44

aquiro H-U-L. But wait, why couldn't

4:46

a laurial or a pawns or

4:48

even H-U-L for that matter do

4:50

the same thing? Prianga Garval who

4:53

was a brand manager for Laurial

4:55

explained why. It is because Laurial

4:57

imports its products. She also pointed

4:59

out how minimalist success also has

5:02

a lot to do with the

5:04

rigorous quality checks that the company

5:06

conducts as compared to other brands.

5:09

In fact, Mohit Yadav told again

5:11

that minimalist works with a 25-member

5:13

research and development team. These are

5:15

people with prior experience from L'Oreal

5:18

and Estelado. They invest two to

5:20

five percent of their business in

5:22

R&D. and a company has one

5:25

manufacturing facility in Jaipur and is

5:27

currently developing a second one. Stay

5:29

tuned for more on what legacy

5:31

brands are up to. Before we

5:34

get into what legacy brands have

5:36

been doing so far, let us

5:38

get one thing out of the

5:41

way. What does this acquisition mean?

5:43

Number one, it means that active

5:45

ingredients based skin care is not

5:47

just a fad. It is here

5:50

to stay. It is here to

5:52

stay. Number two transparency on part

5:54

of brands can go a long

5:56

way especially when it comes to

5:59

skin care And number three,

6:01

this is a clear sign that

6:03

2025 could bring even more consolidation

6:05

in the consumer space. These like

6:08

this show that growing consumer brands

6:10

with a solid user base

6:12

and decent revenue are definitely

6:15

worth investing in. Basically, it's

6:17

a great thing for the industry

6:19

in general. Now coming to what

6:21

legacy brands have been up to.

6:23

Let's take H-U-L's fair and

6:25

lovely, for example. It introduced

6:28

it to the Indian market as

6:30

early as 1975. And near Sinemide

6:32

was actually the product's main

6:34

ingredient. But you know what the

6:37

packaging said? Advanced multivitiments.

6:39

They did not want to name the

6:42

chemicals because back then people thought

6:44

all chemicals are bad. But even

6:46

now, when things have changed, fair

6:48

and lovely, which thankfully is called

6:50

glow and lovely now, still has

6:52

the words advanced multivitamin

6:55

printed on it. not the

6:57

active ingredients. But the shifting

6:59

consumer preference from natural ingredients

7:01

to active ones like retinol

7:03

and vitamin C and the

7:05

success that brands like minimalists

7:07

have seen in India have

7:10

prompted legacy players to adapt

7:12

to market trends. I mean, age well

7:14

took it so seriously that it

7:16

has actually gone an acquired minimalist.

7:18

Others have resorted to changing the

7:20

packaging of their products like

7:22

ponds. Even L'Oreal, the world's largest

7:25

beauty and cosmetics company, doubled

7:27

down on the Indian market

7:29

with the launch of its

7:31

dermatological beauty brand called Servi

7:33

in November 2023. Meanwhile, it

7:35

also started selling the French

7:37

brand La Roche Poiset in

7:39

India. It also relaunched its

7:41

luxury skincare arm lungcom in

7:44

2022 because of the demand

7:46

for premium skincare brands. Neutrogena

7:48

which is owned by Johnson

7:50

and Johnson upgraded its popular

7:52

moisturizer to add hyaloronic acid in

7:54

2023. Ollie from Procton Gamble

7:56

also introduced products like

7:59

regenerative is Retinal 24 Night

8:01

Cream in its premium range. In

8:03

fact, even H-U-L has been

8:05

on it for a while.

8:08

It launched Acne Squad, an

8:10

active ingredient-based product in October

8:12

2022 and also Novology, a

8:15

pharmaceutical product in May 2023. But

8:17

being a legacy brand has

8:19

its own disadvantages. Someone from

8:21

H-U-L who did not want to be

8:24

named told my colleague Noha that the

8:26

company is so big and so bureaucratic

8:28

in nature that instead of taking a

8:30

speedy approach like other D2C brands, they

8:32

always end up being late to the

8:35

party. So what can they do? Other legacy

8:37

brands can take notes from

8:39

what India's digital first beauty company,

8:41

Honeasa Consumer, has done with its

8:43

more than a billion dollars worth

8:46

Mama Earth. Instead of diluting Mama

8:48

Earth, which has always marketed its

8:50

products as being toxin-free and

8:53

natural, Honeysa built brands

8:55

such as Acologica and Dermakot

8:57

and acquired Dr. Shetz in

8:59

May 2022. This was located

9:01

to specific skin concerns

9:03

and target this demographic.

9:05

The company also leveraged the

9:08

Mama Earth distribution network

9:10

to penetrate these brands offline.

9:13

In the six months

9:15

to September 2023, nearly

9:17

13% of Honeysa's revenue

9:20

came from its new

9:22

products like Salic acid

9:25

serum and face wash,

9:27

among others. from the

9:30

active-based ingredients skincare category.

9:32

Minimalist, meanwhile, needed to

9:35

scale and grow more

9:37

categories. And now, it

9:39

shouldn't be so hard

9:42

to pull off for

9:44

the brand thanks to

9:47

HLL's massive distribution

9:49

network and packing.

9:52

What you're listening to is just

9:54

a small sample of our subscriber

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and podcast extras. To subscribe, head

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of the ken website. Today's episode

10:10

was hosted by Snigda Sharma and

10:13

edited by Rajiv Kia.