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Informist, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025

 

By Avishek Rakshit

 

KOLKATA – Emami Ltd. is set to relaunch its Ayurvedic hair care brand Kesh King during the upcoming festival season, which coincides with the Durga Puja festival in the east, as part of the company's initiative to revive the brand and strategically transform its market positioning alongwith combatting other structural challenges.

 

"Our Ayurvedic hair and scalp care brand, Kesh King, is also undergoing a strategic transformation with global brand consultant BCG (Boston Consulting Group), addressing challenges in channel mix, pricing, SKU (stock keeping unit) structure, and media planning," Chairman R.S. Goenka told the company's shareholders in his address during Emami's 42nd Annual General Meeting Friday. "The brand is poised to a new phase of evolution aimed towards better growth prospects."

 

Later, while responding to queries from shareholders, Chief Financial Officer N.H. Bhansali said, "We had plans to do a strategic transformation, and you will see it in the near time during the Pujas." Durga Puja begins on Sept. 28 and ends on Oct. 2.

 

In June 2015, Emami had acquired the Kesh King brand for INR 16.5 billion, marking its foray into the hair care segment. However, the company soon faced problems relating to under-reporting of inventory with the sales channels, even as competitor Hindustan Unilever Ltd. increased its play in the hair care segment with the acquisition of Indulekha brand in April 2016 for INR 3.3 billion.

 

Emami was successful in transitioning the BoroPlus brand from an antiseptic cream to a skincare solution provider, a segment in which it currently commands a 67% domestic market share. It was, however, not so successful with the Kesh King brand. Despite Emami's continued efforts at product innovation through packaging, product format, sales channel modifications, among others, Kesh King continued to witness muted sales performance.

 

In the latest June quarter, Emami was able to hold onto its revenues despite a challenging demand environment and its seasonal products taking a hit on account of a short summer, but sales of Kesh King continued its declining trajectory and sales fell 5% on year. Kesh King is one of the major non-seasonal products for Emami, whose portfolio is majorly skewed towards seasonal products, leaving the company's performance exposed to seasonal risks. Emami, which is on course to premiumise its portfolio and foray into different product segments via acquisitions, engaged BCG as consultant to chalk out a roadmap for the BoroPlus brand and revive the Kesh King brand.

 

Earlier this month, Vice Chairman and Whole-time Director Mohan Goenka told reporters that Emami did consumer research to understand the reasons behind the muted performance of Kesh King. He said the key problem is Kesh King faces increased competition in the category. Emami's usual strategy involves foraying into categories where it faces less competition, and scaling up operations fast to emerge as category leaders.

 

On Thursday, shares of Emami ended 1.08% up at INR 573.60 on the National Stock Exchange. End

 

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

 

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