Brands

Deconstructing the beauty and personal care market

Published

3 years ago

August 8, 2023

MUMBAI: This is one minnow who does not fear the whales. Nor the fierce competition in the ugly, competitive world of beauty and personal care products dominated by large players such as Procter & Gamble, Hindustan Unilever, L’Oreal, and smaller hungry-to-grow D2C brands such as Nykaa, Mamaearth, Wow Skin Science. Two-year old Bengaluru-based D2C startup Baypure Lifestyle has been charging into this segment, first online and now into the physical retail space. With 34-35 SKUs in its cosmetics bag ranging from face, hair and body serums to face washes, lip balms under the brand name Deconstruct, it has been clocking up a monthly revenue of Rs 25-27 million per month and is on track to hit Rs 360-400 million by end 2023-24. The target is to touch Rs 1000 million by 2025, and Rs 2000 million by 2026.

“Challenger brands are here to stay. We are going to disrupt the market. I don’t think we are worried about the legacy brands; I think legacy is being redefined,” says Deconstruct founder & CEO Malini Adapureddy, who has almost 12 years of work experience with companies such as P&G, Flipkart and Kraft Heinz and also has an engineering degree and an MBA from Insead, France under her belt.

How did she chance upon the name Deconstruct for a beauty products brand?

“The idea is that we are deconstructing complex skincare products and routines into ingredient/concern-based information to help the consumer understand the purpose of the product and pick the right one to minimize their skincare concerns. Every product manufacturer says we are being transparent but no one is being totally transparent. Deconstruct products are science-based and treatment-focused to tackle acne, ageing, dryness, dandruff, oily scalps, pigmentation, lip dryness etc. Using them you can treat trivial problems without having to go to a dermatologist. They are also evidence-based, that is, we guarantee results as a marketing strategy as well as a promise,” she reveals.

That’s a promise that investors like Kalaari Capital, Flipkart’s Binny Bansal, and Beenext have bought into, pumping in $2.4 million into her venture.

Pricing wise, Deconstruct’s products are in the Rs 300 to Rs 1.900 range (for kits) and are cheaper than most premium international brands but they sell in the price range of L’Oreal’s professional product series. “We are a mass premium brand,” she says.

The products are formulations which are normally found in pharmacy outlets in Europe and have ingredients like niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, alpha alburtin, salicylic acid, potassium-azeloyl-diglycenate and alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs).

Today, 90 per cent of Deconstruct’s sales are from online marketplaces, while only 10 per cent is from offline. Adapureddy says two years from the pandemic and lockdowns, consumption has been moving from digital to physical retail. The company has plans to make a push in that direction. Already it has set up a kiosk in Bangalore’s Vega City Mall on Bannerghatta main road, and is making inroads into the Health & Glow chain in southern India, apart from other retailers.

“We expect to expand our retail presence by five or six in the next three months, but focusing on the south,” says Adapureddy. The rapid growth in physical retail by the likes of Nykaa and Reliance’s Tira Beauty is what has emboldened her to take that route.

She is sanguine Deconstruct is on a good wicket as consumer needs are evolving. “Today, serums as a category have overtaken make up in terms of sales volumes on most online marketplaces whether it’s Amazon or Nykaa,” she points out. “Also we have almost no national competition in products such as scalp, antidandruff, exfoliating serums.”

Deconstruct has contracted four manufacturers in Maharashtra (two), Puducherry (one) and one in north India to roll out 50,000 units of its 35 SKUs every month. “We develop the formulations internally, test them and then do a tech transfer keeping a check on quality with our vendor manufacturers,” explains Adapureddy.

The company spends a lot of time on research and development, testing, before releasing the products for manufacture. (However, product turnaround times are quicker than that for the multinationals which can take up to 36 months to relaunch a product.) A large part of the team of 35 is focused on sales, marketing, and penetrating new markets. That is expected to balloon with the company making a retail push.

“We are having a good revenue run rate, our burn rate is also under control. We have 18 months of our capital raise runway left and our gross margins are healthy. I am pretty gung ho about our future,” she elucidates.

One of the reasons why the company’s burn rate is low relates to the fact that it has not resorted to any large scale print or TV ad spends like many other start ups tend to do. All of Deconstruct’s ad dollars are targeted on Amazon, Google and Meta ecosystems. “We put out a lot of educative ad content but in a manner that appeals to our targeted consumers,” she says. “Amongst these are movie memes around nostalgic pop culture films, which our audiences find quirky.”

Adapureddy admits that the biggest challenge she faces is whether the company can continue to innovate. “We have to be continuously innovative in our ad spends, in products by entering those white niche spaces before anyone gets in. We also need to be agile, continue to have that fire. Deconstruct is building for the knowledge economy what Unilever built for the aspirational economy.”

With high aspirations like that, Adapureddy and Deconstruct could well construct a good growth storyline and script for the consumer, themselves and their investors.

Brands

Netflix India names Rekha Rane director of films and series marketing

Streaming giant bets on a seasoned marketer who helped build Amazon and Netflix into household names

Published

1 week ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Netflix has put a proven brand builder at the helm of its films and series marketing in India, naming Rekha Rane as director in a move that signals sharper focus on audience growth and cultural cut-through in one of its most hotly contested markets.

Rane steps into the role after seven years at Netflix, where she has quietly shaped how the platform sells stories to India. Her latest promotion, effective February 2026, crowns a run that spans brand, slate and product marketing across originals, licensed content and new verticals such as games.

A strategic marketing and communications professional with roughly 15 years’ experience, Rane has spent much of her career building technology-led consumer businesses and new categories, notably e-commerce and subscription video on demand. She was part of the early push that introduced Amazon.in, Prime Video and Netflix to Indian homes, then helped turn them into everyday brands.

At Netflix, she most recently served as head of brand and slate marketing for India from March 2024 to February 2026, leading teams across media and marketing for global and local content portfolios. Before that, as manager for original films and series marketing, she led IP creation and go-to-market strategy for titles including Guns and Gulaabs, Kaala Paani, The Railway Men* and The Great Indian Kapil Show, spanning both binge and weekly-release formats.

Her earlier Netflix roles covered product discovery and promotion in India and integrated campaign strategy to drive conversations around the content slate, product awareness and brand-equity metrics.

Before Netflix, Rane logged more than three years at Amazon in brand marketing roles in Bengaluru. There she handled national and regional campaigns for Amazon.in, worked on customer assistance programmes in growth geographies and contributed to the go-to-market strategy for the launch of Prime Video India.

Her career began well away from streaming. At Reliance Brands in Mumbai, she worked on retail marketing for Diesel and Superdry. A stint at Leo Burnett saw her work on primary research for P&G Tide, mapping Indian shoppers’ paths to purchase. Earlier still, at Orange in the United Kingdom, she rose from sales assistant to store manager, running a team and owning monthly P&L for a retail outlet.

The arc is telling. As global streamers fight for attention in a crowded Indian market, executives who understand both mass retail behaviour and digital habit-building are prized. Rane’s career sits at that intersection.

For Netflix, the bet is simple: in a market spoilt for choice, sharp marketing can still tilt the screen. And with Rane now leading the charge, the streamer is signalling it wants not just viewers, but fandom.

Brands

Orient Beverages pops the fizz with steady Q3 gains and rising profits

Kolkata-based beverage maker reports stronger revenues and profits for December quarter.

Published

1 week ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: A fizzy quarter with a steady aftertaste that’s how Orient Beverages Limited, the company that manufactures and distributes packaged drinking water under the brand name Bisleri closed the December 2025 period, as the Kolkata-based drinks maker reported improved revenues and a healthy rise in profits, signalling operational stability in a competitive beverage market.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2025, Orient Beverages posted standalone revenue from operations of Rs 39.98 crore, up from Rs 36.42 crore in the previous quarter and Rs 33.53 crore in the same quarter last year. Total income for the quarter stood at Rs 42.24 crore, reflecting consistent demand and stable pricing across its beverage portfolio.

Profit before tax for the quarter came in at Rs 3.47 crore, a sharp improvement from Rs 1.31 crore in the September quarter and Rs 0.39 crore a year ago. After accounting for tax expenses of Rs 0.79 crore, the company reported a net profit of Rs 2.68 crore, nearly three times the Rs 0.99 crore recorded in the preceding quarter.

On a nine-month basis, the momentum remained intact. Revenue from operations for the period ended December 31, 2025 rose to Rs 117.66 crore, compared with Rs 106.95 crore in the corresponding period last year. Net profit for the nine months climbed to Rs 5.51 crore, more than double the Rs 2.18 crore reported in the same period of the previous financial year.

The consolidated numbers told a similar story. For the December quarter, consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 45.06 crore, while profit after tax came in at Rs 2.06 crore. For the nine-month period, consolidated revenue touched Rs 133.57 crore, with net profit of Rs 4.49 crore, underscoring the group’s improving profitability trajectory.

Operating expenses remained largely controlled, with cost of materials, employee benefits and other expenses broadly aligned with revenue growth. The company continued to operate within a single reportable segment beverages simplifying its cost structure and reporting framework.

The unaudited financial results were reviewed by the Audit Committee and approved by the Board of Directors at its meeting held on 7 February 2026. Statutory auditors carried out a limited review and reported no material misstatements in the results.

In a market where margins are often squeezed by input costs and competition, Orient Beverages’ latest numbers suggest the company has found a reliable rhythm not explosive, but steady enough to keep the fizz alive.

Brands

BCCL profit jumps 53 per cent in FY25 as tax bill shrinks

Revenue rises 4.3 per cent to Rs 10,209.33 crore while deferred tax gain lifts bottom line sharply

Published

1 week ago

February 9, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

NEW DELHI: Bennett, Coleman and Company (BCCL) has posted a sparkling set of financial results for the year ended 31 March 2025, proving that there is still plenty of ink and gold left in the ledger.

Revenue from operations climbed a steady 4.3 per cent, reaching Rs 10,209.33 crore compared to Rs 9,786.44 crore the previous year. When you sprinkle in other income, which rose 8.9 per cent to Rs 949.36 crore, the total income for the media behemoth hit a healthy Rs 11,158.69 crore.

While the income grew at a modest pace, the bottom line tells a far more dramatic story. The real headline is the 53 per cent surge in annual profit. How did they pull off such a feat? While Profit Before Tax (PBT) saw a gentle nudge upward of 2.7 per cent to Rs 1,610.00 crore, it was a vanishing act by the taxman that really did the trick.

Total tax expenses plummeted by 32.4 per cent, dropping from Rs 468.76 crore down to Rs 316.97 crore. This was largely thanks to a swing in deferred tax, moving from an expense of Rs 156.02 crore in FY24 to a benefit of Rs 39.44 crore this year.

Total income rose from Rs 10,658.55 crore in FY24 to Rs 11,158.69 crore in FY25, marking a 4.7 per cent increase. Total expenses grew at a slower pace, up 3.0 per cent from Rs 9,306.06 crore to Rs 9,581.45 crore. Profit before tax inched up 2.7 per cent, moving from Rs 1,567.02 crore to Rs 1,610.00 crore. However, the standout figure was net profit, which jumped sharply by 53.0 per cent, climbing from Rs 1,042.03 crore in FY24 to Rs 1,594.73 crore in FY25.

Despite the rising costs of doing business across the globe, BCCL kept a tight grip on the purse strings. Total expenses rose by just 3.0 per cent to Rs 9,581.45 crore. By keeping costs lower than the rate of income growth, the company ensured that the final figure, a net profit of Rs 1,594.73 crore, was nothing short of a front-page sensation.

In a world of shifting digital tides, it seems the BCCL ship is not just steady, but sailing into significantly wealthier waters.