Men's grooming start ups are becoming threat to FMCG giants operating in men's grooming industry: Bonafide Research

In the recent time, there is emergence of start ups offering products specifically designed for men. They are threatening the existing FMCG giants by new products offering and product innovation. In urban India, men are progressively getting to be mindful of the most recent patterns and concerns encompassing one's physical appearance. Because of the rising discretionary money, they are energetically spending some serious money on grooming items. They do not want to use female's products or unisex products besides want products specially designed for them. Over the last decade, the demand for male grooming products has driven companies to sell items beyond shaving gels, razors, and deodorants for men. All these added products are offered mostly by start ups which have emerged in last few years in the country. These start ups includes The Bombay Shaving Company, Happily Unmarried Marketing, Zed Lifestyle, LesShave, The Man Company etc which offer wide range of men's grooming products such as beard oil & balm, moustache oil & balm apart from hair gel, wax, body wash, shower gel, bar soap, deodorant that are offered by FMCG giants.
 
According to the report, “India Men’s Grooming Market Overview, 2022-28” published by Bonafide research, the market is expected to grow with a CAGR of more than 11% during the forecast period with more than 31000 INR Crore market size. Beard care market is dominated by new start ups and Marico with its set wet beard gel. In shaving products, both razor and shaving toiletries are going to have growth rate more than 6% during forecast period. In fragrance market, HUL, Vini Cosmetic and ITC with their respective brands have controlled 40% of the deodorant market in the year 2021-22. In the skin care market, fairness cream market are going to be the major contributor followed by face wash at the end of forecast period. In men's hair care market, hair styling product is the most important segment which have highest CAGR among all hair products like hair oil, serum, colour etc.

Having seen profitability of start ups, giants have started to invest in these start ups, in a bid to enter the male grooming market online. For example, In March 2017, Marico which already sells Set Wet hair gel for men invested a 45% stake in Beardo of Zed Lifestyle Company based in Ahemdabad. Again, Wipro Consumer Care has invested in Happily Unmarried Pvt Marketing in November, 2017. The investment was close to Rs 50 crore and Wipro has picked up about 20% stake. Later, in December 2017, Emami bought a 30% stake in The Man Company, an e-store which sells premium male grooming products. On the other hand, Emami has also acquired 30% equity stake and invested USD 3 million in The Man Company. Thus most of every start ups operating in male grooming industry has received funding from big FMCG giants.

Besides investment, start ups have also funded by some other investors which have made them reachable to consumers through wide distribution network of investors. For example, The Bombay Shaving Company which was founded in the year 2015 has raised USD 2.5 million in pre-series funding from Fireside Ventures and HNI’s, including senior McKinsey & Co executives. In addition to this, it has also secured USD 600K in an angel funding round from 25+ investors in August 2016. Zed Lifestyle Pvt. Ltd. received USD 500,000 in seed funding in September 2016 at a valuation of Rs 40 crore, led by New York hedge fund manager Raj Vazirani. The Man Company start up which was founded in the year 2015 has originally raised an undisclosed amount of Seed funding in September 2015 from a clutch of angel investors, including  Karan Bajwa, MD Microsoft India; Amanpreet Bajaj, Country Manager -India at Airbnb and Manish Vij, founder and CEO of SVG Media. Thus all these start ups are flourished by investment made up giants or investor.

Major Companies
Major companies that operate into the Men's Grooming product market in India are Gillette India Limited, Emami Limited, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL), J.K. Helene Curtis India Ltd, Nivea India Private Limited, L'Oreal India Private Limited, Marico Limited, VI-John India Private Limited, Himalaya Drug Company Private Limited, ITC Limited, Zed Lifestyle Pvt. Ltd., Happily Unmarried Marketing Pvt. Ltd (Ustraa), Visage Lines Personal Care Pvt. Ltd., Man Arden, Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care Limited.