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Tag: Honasa Consumer

  • Honasa ropes in Yatish Bhargava as chief business officer to boost growth playbook

    Honasa ropes in Yatish Bhargava as chief business officer to boost growth playbook

    MUMBAI: Not every day does a personal care unicorn rope in an FMCG heavyweight to sharpen its business game—but when it does, the move smells as sweet as a bottle of onion hair oil going viral on Instagram.

    Honasa Consumer Limited, the parent company behind Mamaearth, The Derma Co., and Aqualogica, announced on 17 June 2025 the appointment of Yatish Bhargava as its new chief business officer (CBO). The decision signals a strategic gear shift for the fast-growing brand, as it seeks to scale both breadth and depth across general trade, modern trade, and online marketplaces.

    Bhargava steps into the role as a seasoned operator with over 17 years of experience. He brings P&L expertise and leadership acumen honed at some of India’s most influential consumer companies, including Flipkart and Hindustan Unilever. At Flipkart, he played a central role in category transformation and go-to-market strategies. At HUL, he led high-performing sales and growth teams across multiple verticals.

    His appointment takes effect immediately, with a full-time term. Honasa stated that Bhargava will be a designated senior management personnel (SMP) under SEBI compliance.

    In its regulatory filing with the NSE and BSE, Honasa underscored its intent to reinforce business scale, growth strategies, and sustainable momentum through Bhargava’s expertise. “Yatish has led category transformation, built scalable go-to-market strategies and driven sustained growth across diverse consumer businesses”, the company noted in its official statement.

    An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, Bhargava will be tasked with building on Honasa’s already expansive omnichannel approach while navigating the highly competitive D2C landscape.

    The announcement comes at a time when Honasa is increasingly eyeing market leadership across beauty and wellness categories, both online and offline. With Bhargava’s appointment, the company appears ready to play offence with stronger execution muscle and retail agility.

    The disclosure has been made available on Honasa’s official website.

  • Harleen Bhatti hops onto Honasa Consumer

    Harleen Bhatti hops onto Honasa Consumer

    MUMBAI: Harleen Bhatti has taken the reins as vice president of direct-to-consumer operations at Honasa Consumer Ltd, parent company of Mamaearth, stepping into the role this April after a nine-month stint at Wellbeing Nutrition.

    The digital marketing maven brings impressive credentials from India’s consumer tech landscape, having previously served three years at The Good Glamm Group, where she built and led a 25-member team across D2C functions that directly impacted more than 60 per cent of the group’s revenue.

    “My North Star metric is focused on achieving a target LTV:CAC ratio and ensuring a profitable recurring P&L,” Bhatti noted about her approach to digital growth—a philosophy that has served her well across stints at several high-profile consumer brands.

    Before joining The Good Glamm Group, Bhatti spearheaded retention marketing at Lenskart.com, where she claimed to have generated a return on investment of 4x from customer relationship management channels. Her earlier career included roles at Cure.Fit’s Eat.fit division and Capillary Technologies.

    Bhatti’s appointment comes at a crucial time for Honasa, which has been expanding its brand portfolio beyond its flagship Mamaearth line. Her extensive experience in performance marketing, customer acquisition and retention strategies could prove vital as the company looks to strengthen its direct-to-consumer operations in an increasingly competitive beauty and personal care market.

    The digital growth specialist cut her teeth in strategy consulting at PricewaterhouseCoopers and investment banking at Copal Amba before finding her niche in consumer tech marketing. With her track record of driving profitability through data-driven customer engagement strategies, Honasa appears to be betting on Bhatti to help cash in on India’s booming D2C revolution

  • Sunscreen spat sees HUL and Mamaearth kiss and make up, with a few tweaks

    Sunscreen spat sees HUL and Mamaearth kiss and make up, with a few tweaks

    MUMBAI: The beauty world’s latest dust-up has settled, with Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) and Honasa Consumer, the brains behind Mamaearth, calling a truce after a courtroom rumble. It all kicked off when Lakmé, HUL’s flagship beauty brand, launched a “sun superiority campaign” that rather pointedly suggested some “online bestsellers” were fibbing about their SPF claims. Honasa, whose Derma Co. brand sports a rather distinctive orange, felt a tad singed, accusing Lakmé of throwing shade on their packaging and claims.

    Honasa co-founder Ghazal Alagh  took to LinkedIn with a saucy post, welcoming Lakmé to the “in-vivo tested SPF 50 club,” a move that, the Bombay High Court suggested, might have been a tad disparaging itself. HUL, not one to take such cheek lying down, hit back, claiming their tests showed some rivals were, shall we say, economising on the truth.

    But the Delhi high court, like a stern headmaster, stepped in and told both parties to play nicely. Lakmé was ordered to tweak its ad, swapping out “online bestseller” for the more vague “some sellers” and changing the offending orange to a demure light yellow. Honasa, in turn, agreed to scrub their social media jibes.

     HUL maintained that their campaign was all about keeping consumers safe from those who might be stretching the truth about SPF.

    Honasa, perhaps with a sigh of relief, agreed to take down their digital digs. Both parties also promised to remove their physical hoardings, which were apparently giving each other the evil eye, within 48 hours.
    This skirmish highlights the fiercely competitive nature of India’s Rs 2,000 crore sun care market, where brands are fighting tooth and nail for a slice of the pie. With consumer understanding of SPF still patchy, there’s plenty of room for both innovation and, it seems, a bit of the old marketing mischief.

  • Honasa Consumer chief business officer Zarius Master puts in his papers

    Honasa Consumer chief business officer Zarius Master puts in his papers

    MUMBAI: It’s time for Zarius Master. to say goodbye. The chief business officer of D2C FMCG innovator  Honasa Consumer Ltd resigned from  the company on 2 January.  His resignation becomes effective 28 February 2025.

    Zairus, according to his linkedin profile, was responsible for lower funnel management to capture demand and translate to revenue; for  leading the evolution of an omni channel, multi brand organisation to drive profitable growth by gaining shares across categories in beauty and personal care and  for creation of a business plan through investment allocation choices across categories, brands, and channels to optimise for growth and profitability.

    Honasa co-founder & CEO Varun Alagh,  like Zarius, cut his teeth in FMCG with Hindustan Unilever and  this is what encouraged the latter to join him.

    Zarius joined the company in August 2021 from recruitment portal Shine.com where he worked for nearly eight years and rose to become its CEO. Prior to that he had stints in sales, marketing, and category leadership with some of the crème de la crème of corporations: Hindustan Unilever, Nokia, and Airtel.

    An  economic arts graduate, Zarius completed his diploma in marketing and topped that with an MBA in marketing from IIM, Lucknow.

    Honasa which counts MamaEarth, The Derma Co, BBlunt, Dr Sheth’s, Aqualogica, Staze9to9 and the Bblunt Salons in its brand portfolio was founded in 2016 by Ghazal and Varun Alagh. It reported revenues of Rs 462 crores in Q2 FY 2025 while the half year 2025 revenues were at Rs 1016 crore. It reported a loss of Rs 19 crore in the quarter and a profit of Rs 22 crore for the half year. 

  • Honasa Consumer onboards Pratik Mukherjee as vice president of Brand Factory

    Honasa Consumer onboards Pratik Mukherjee as vice president of Brand Factory

    Mumbai: Fast growing house of brands for personal care and parent company of Mamaearth, The Derma Co., Ayuga, & Aqualogica, Honasa Consumer (HCPL) has appointed Pratik Mukherjee as vice president, Brand Factory, where he will be responsible for crafting, launching, and building new brands business for Honasa. Mukherjee will be based out of the Honasa Consumer head office in Gurgaon.

    With over a decade of experience, Mukherjee has been a part of prestigious brands like P&G, Gillette, and Urban Company. He began his professional career with Tata Consultancy Group before moving on to IIM-Ahmedabad to complete his master’s degree. Thereafter, he joined Procter & Gamble, where he worked on the Gillette brand and oversaw brand launches and campaigns, earning him awards. He served as the head of Procter & Gamble’s DTC business for India and South Asia.

    Later, he joined Urban Company as the marketing head for beauty, grooming & cleaning verticals. As the head of marketing at Infra.Market (a construction unicorn), A Cannes awardee, Mukherjee has been acknowledged with various other awards like the Asia President’s Award and Global President Awards.

    Speaking on his role, Pratik Mukherjee said, “I am honoured and excited to join Honasa and contribute towards the journey to build a house of consumer-loved brands leveraging the digital-first D2C playbook. Honasa Consumer’s brands have created tremendous displacement, capturing sizable market share and garnering consumer trust in a very short period. I look forward to joining this trailblazing team and contributing to the next wave of growth for the company.”

    Honasa Consumer co-founder and CEO Varun Alagh said, “Honasa has emerged as the fastest growing D2C brand and being a digital-first brand, it is critical to constantly innovate and stay ahead of competition in this extremely dynamic digital ecosystem.”

    “Pratik has extensive experience of building millennial brands, and he will elevate and support us as we plan to implement efficient strategies to launch new brands and take the businesses to the next level with his knowledge and expertise. We are thrilled to have him on board as we expand the company,” he further said.

  • HCPL acquires a majority stake in skincare brand Dr. Sheth’s

    HCPL acquires a majority stake in skincare brand Dr. Sheth’s

    Mumbai: The parent company of Mamaearth and The Derma Co., Honasa Consumer has acquired skincare brand Dr. Sheth’s. Through this acquisition, the company has control of the majority stake in Dr. Sheth’s at a valuation of Rs 28 crore. The primary round of funds will be directed to accelerate future growth of the  brand.  

    While Honasa Consumers will have control of the majority stake in Dr. Sheth’s, Dr Aneesh Sheth will continue to lead the business and product innovation for the brand.  

    The products of Dr Sheth’s have been developed with expertise accrued by three generations of accomplished cosmetologists and dermatologists. The products are formulated knowing that Indian skin is unique and requires specialized care. The brands’ product portfolio has solutions for skin concerns like pigmentation, acne, dryness, wrinkles, and many  others. Some of the popular products by the brand are amla vc20 vitamin c serum, haldi and hyaluronic  acid sleeping mask, cica and ceramide overnight repair serum, among others. With over 30+ Skus, the brand has catered to over 200,000 consumers.  

    Dr. Sharat Desai, probably India’s first dermatologist, worked to put  India on the map for the field of dermatology. Following in the father’s footsteps, his daughter, Dr. Rekha Sheth, became India’s first cosmetic dermatologist and one of the preferred dermatologists by bollywood  celebrities. Dr. Aneesh Sheth, PhD Pharmacology and an Ivy league trained cosmetic scientist, founded  Dr. Sheth’s with the ambition of formulating skincare products using the knowledge aggregated over three  generations and bringing the best of nature and science together.

    Millennials are evolving and there is a growing appreciation for sophisticated ingredients. While they seek  comfort in traditional Indian ingredients in skincare, they also want to go beyond the conventional and  experiment. Sheth’s has identified this void and created a portfolio of products that blend natural  ingredients with science-based active ingredients, providing the best of both worlds. With a digital-first  approach Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. has established its leadership in understanding millennial  consumer behavior and launching and successfully scaling consumer brands with a strong millennial  connect. The expertise of Dr. Sheth’s in creating specialized skincare for Indian consumers, coupled with the digital expertise of HCPL, will help scale the business of Dr. Sheth’s and further strengthen the  leadership of HCPL in digital-first brands.  

    Honasa Consumer co-founder and CEO Varun Alagh said, “Dr.  Sheth’s is a brand that is synonymous with heritage and legacy, and we are excited about this partnership  as it will help us widen our portfolio offerings under the HCPL umbrella. It will be a symbiotic relationship  wherein there will be knowledge sharing across brands and collaboratively build the brand and its product  portfolio.”

    “Being a house of brands, Honasa Consumer has attained expertise in building millennial  brands with a digital-first approach. We will utilize our expertise and proficiency in digital marketing to  accelerate the growth and scale growth for Dr. Sheth’s and we are confident that we will make it a 100 crores run rate brand in two years. HCPL & Dr. Sheth’s synergize on fundamental ideologies of distinctive product  innovation and strong millennial connect, we are confident this collaboration will be a success for  consumers and for both brands,” he added.

    Commenting on the partnership Aneesh Sheth said, “We are very excited about the partnership with HCPL  – they bring a level of operational excellence that will make our expertise and our products accessible to a  wider community. Their experience as a house of brands will also help us optimize our innovation and bring  about a great range of skincare that combines the best of both worlds – science and nature.”

  • Honasa Consumer appoints Anuja Mishra as CMO

    Honasa Consumer appoints Anuja Mishra as CMO

    MUMBAI: Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. (HCPL), parent company of Mamaearth, and The Derma Co., a fast-growing House of Brands for personal care, appointed Anuja Mishra as chief marketing officer. In her new capacity, Mishra will oversee the marketing strategy for Honasa Consumer group brands – Mamaearth, The Derma Co., and Bblunt.

    Mishra will be taking the baton from Sambit Dash, who has been elevated to head Brand Factory Team where he will be responsible for crafting, launching, and building new brands business for Honasa. She will be based out of the Honasa Consumer head office in Gurgaon.

    Mishra brings over 17 years of experience across marketing and sales, having led brand management, innovation strategy and sales across three blue-chip FMCG organisations and some of the popular brands. As the CMO of Honasa Consumer, she will be responsible for accelerating the brand’s awareness and growth across the D2C ecosystem.
    Speaking on her role, Anuja Mishra said, “I am absolutely thrilled and honored to join Honasa Consumer in its exciting journey of becoming a powerful house of brands. Honasa has proven to be a trailblazer across the D2C landscape, and I have tremendous respect for the organization’s ability to innovate disruptively and meaningfully. I look forward to joining this talented team and contributing to the growth mission.”

    Commenting on the onboarding, Honasa Consumer co-founder and CEO Varun Alagh said, “Honasa has emerged as the fastest growing D2C brand and being a digital first brand, it is critical to constantly innovate and stay ahead of others in this excessively dynamic digital ecosystem. Anuja comes with extensive experience in managing millennial brands and she joins us at a time when the group has attained a great milestone with her expertise, she will elevate and support the strategy to the next one. We are excited to have a seasoned professional like her on board and look forward to growing the organisation with her.”

  • Honasa Consumer launches Ayurveda-based skincare brand Ayuga

    Honasa Consumer launches Ayurveda-based skincare brand Ayuga

    Mumbai: Honasa Consumer, the parent company of Mamaearth and The Derma Co has launched an Ayurvedic skincare brand – Ayuga. The brand has collaborated with yoga and wellness ambassador Shilpa Shetty Kundra to craft the brand ideology.

    “Millennials lately have been experiencing a hectic imbalanced lifestyle that eventually takes a toll on their physical and mental health. Ayuga was founded to restore balance in the lives of millennials through recipes and rituals,” said the company in a statement on Thursday. 

    The brand has launched its first skincare range with Kumkumadi.

    “For the last two years, we have been trying to understand the mystery of why Ayurveda has not been able to capture the fancy of millennials the way Yoga has. That’s when we envisioned Ayuga which will bring the best of both worlds,” commented co-founder and CEO Varun Alagh. “Crafted on the philosophy of restoring balance to life, we have collaborated with Shilpa Shetty Kundra as she redefined yoga and wellness in India, and inspired millions of people to make yoga a way of their life.”

    “We are an organisation built on strong consumer centricity and direct-to-consumer format. Hence, we constantly research millennials’ concerns to create brands and products that serve them,” stated Honasa Consumer co-founder and chief innovation officer Ghazal Alagh. “Ayuga stands for the marriage of rituals of yoga and recipes of Ayurveda to deliver true secrets of skin, hair, and health to the world. Partnering with Shilpa Shetty Kundra for Ayuga extended the brand’s thought of restoring balance in life. We are confident that the partnership with Shilpa will help propagate our brand proposition across millennials.”

    “When I heard about Ayuga and the ideology behind the brand, it immediately resonated with me,” said Shilpa Shetty Kundra. “The thought of using traditional Ayurveda recipes and creating modern formats of skincare like serums and gels, without compromising on the authenticity of the ingredients is unique. I am sure the consumers would love the brand and its products; hence I urge them to restore balance in their lives through Ayuga recipes and rituals.”

  • Honasa Consumer acquires Bblunt to enter into hair color & hairstyling category

    Honasa Consumer acquires Bblunt to enter into hair color & hairstyling category

    Mumbai:  In a strategic move, Honasa Consumer (HCPL) – the parent company of Mamaearth, The Derma Co and Aqualogica has acquired Bblunt, a premium hair care, hair color and styling products brand from the house of Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL). In an acquisition aimed at further strengthening the company’s presence in the millennial personal care segment, the digital-first consumer brands company also acquired Bblunt salons operated by Bhabani Blunt Hair Dressing.

    As part of the acquisition, BBlunt hair care and styling products business will be completely owned and managed by Honasa Consumer, announced the company in a statement on Monday. However, BBlunt salon business will continue to operate as an independent entity, with the founding team Adhuna Bhabani, Osh Bhabani and Avan Contractor as creative directors and Spoorthy Shetty as CEO, it further said.

    “BBlunt as a brand, has been ahead of its time with its innovative product portfolio and its digital presence. The brand has carved a niche for itself and considering the market size of Rs 6000 crore in hair color and hairstyling, the brand has potential to grow exponentially,” stated Honasa Consumer co-founder and CEO Varun Alagh. “Being a house of brands, Honasa Consumer has attained expertise in building millennial brands with a digital-first approach. We will utilise our expertise and proficiency in digital marketing to accelerate the growth and scale of BBlunt. Since the brands synergise on fundamental principles and strong millennial connect, we are confident that BBlunt will be a great addition to the Honasa Consumer portfolio.”

    HPCL hopes to help strengthen BBlunt’s and use its D2C and e-commerce strength to scale up the business, said the statement. Through the acquisition, JM Financial acted as an exclusive financial advisor to the company.

    Estimated at Rs 6,000 crore, the hair color and hairstyling category are expected to continue fast-paced growth in India. With increasing millennial demands for innovative and trendy products, BBlunt has an edge over other brands in the market, according to the company, as the brand has built strong millennial equity over the years.

    Founded by Adhuna and Ashoke Bhabani over the last two decades, BBlunt’s has built extensive experience of styling Bollywood celebrities and transferring the salon experience and expertise into quality products. Over the last decade the brand has built a diverse product portfolio, currently consisting of hair colors, shampoos, dry shampoos, conditioners, styling products, serums and temporary hair colors. The product insights have come from stylist and consumer interaction and tested in the salon on real consumers – to build a product line crafted especially for Indian hair, weather, and water conditions, according to the brand.

    “The BBlunt journey has been an extraordinary one, it is a life’s work that led to the creation of our very own product range. BBlunt and Honasa Consumer Pvt ltd share a strong synergy and common brand values,” commented BBlunt founder and director Adhuna Bhabani. “Honasa is a strong player in the Direct to consumer/e-commerce space and they see great potential in the brand and the salon heritage that we have. We, the team, are very excited to see what the future holds in this exciting new chapter for the brand.”

    “This is a significant milestone for our business and is a testament to the outstanding team we have assembled, the rapidly scaling salon business we have created, with a solid academy and shoot vertical that we have developed,” said BBlunt CEO Spoorthy Shetty. “We are excited about the acquisition, and we look forward to supporting Honasa’s growth ambitions. This is a win-win situation for both companies and the expected synergies will allow us to broaden our customer, product, geographical and technological base. Our clients will continue to receive the same high quality service, which they have come to expect.”

  • Honasa Consumer acquires content platform Momspresso

    Honasa Consumer acquires content platform Momspresso

    Mumbai: Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd (HCPL), the parent company of Mamaearth and The Derma Co, has acquired women-centric content platform Momspresso and associated influencer-engagement platform Momspresso MyMoney. According to a statement, the acquisition accelerates the company’s engagement with consumers to further strengthen content-to-commerce.   

    The acquisition is an extension of a partnership with Momspresso for content, influencer engagement and commerce.  Momspresso also runs MyMoney, a platform for micro-influencers to engage with consumers in the new-age economy.

    Commenting on the acquisition, HPCL co-founder and CEO Varun Alagh said, “We have experienced exponential growth due to our constant connect with community and consumers and the partnership with Momspresso will further scale up our creator network. Content driven commerce has been on an upsurge and we are confident that the capabilities that the team brings will help accelerate our content-to-commerce strategy, in an efficient and smart way to support our marketing investments and brand building. This fundamental shift will allow us to cultivate stronger associations with existing and new creators and communities.”

    Through this acquisition, Momspresso and MyMoney will provide HCPL with a platform to connect with 60,000 content-creators in 10 languages, an engaged community of 30 mn women, and 2,00,000+ micro-influencers connected to 50 million consumers, thereby enabling HCPL to directly connect with creators, communities, and consumers, said the company.

    Following the acquisition, Momspresso will continue to function independently and the founding team with co-founder and CEO Vishal Gupta, co-founder and CTO Asif Mohamed and co-founder and COO Prashant Sinha will continue to lead the operations and manage the business as an independent entity. Momspresso will deploy the funds received through the acquisition, towards enhancing the team, building data-science capability, and investing in technology to drive scale and efficiency.

    Commenting on the partnership, Momspresso co-founder and CEO Vishal Gupta said, “At Momspresso, India’s leading content and influencer platform for women, we’re delighted to align forces with Honasa, which has established itself as the foremost DTC player in the country. Together, we are uniquely positioned to unlock synergies in creating a compelling content to commerce playbook. The possibilities are immense, and we are greatly excited at what lies ahead.”