Lotus Herbals mulls entering men’s grooming segment

Lotus Herbals, a India-based skincare products manufacturer, is considering foraying into the men’s grooming segment as part of its expansion strategy in the next two years.

Lotus Herbals director Nitin Passi was quoted by economictimes.indiatimes.com as telling PTI that in India the men’s grooming market was a fast growing and interesting market in which the company had been researching a lot.

"Grooming is becoming very critical for people. The beauty industry is growing at 18-20 percent but we are growing faster than that, driven by higher sales in small towns. Our plans in the next 12 months will be to penetrate into the market more. So, we will be entering new cities and towns with new product offerings," Passi added.

Passi said the urban markets contribute over 60% of the firm’s turnover and the rest comes from other areas which are growing faster, and the Lotus Herbals is expecting to make it 50-50 by 2013.

According to a market researcher Technopak, it was estimated that in 2011 the men’s grooming market had touched Rs30bn ($565.04m) mark.

The company, which markets skincare and cosmetics under the Lotus label, had a turnover of Rs1,75($32.96m) in 2011, and has been growing at 35% from the past few years.

Lotus Herbals said currently it is producing 100 thousand units a day and it is planning to expand the capacity by minimum 50% every year with an expectation of growing by 40% annually.

The firm said it is planning to increase its production by 100 to150 million unit capacity every year.