Ayush relaunch yields only partial success for HUL

Unilever Plc said its ayurvedic brand Ayush, which was relaunched to take on Baba Ramdev-led Patanjali, is only partly successful and needs tweaks to grow.

Hindustan Unilever, the company’s local unit, launched a raft of products under Ayush three years ago aimed squarely at Patanjali after it challenged the dominance of the country’s biggest consumer goods firm.

However, it either scaled down or exited a few categories, especially in the food space, since then.

“It is only partly successful, and the brand will, maybe, do about 15-17 million euros (Rs 115-130 crore) this year. In the north of India, it didn’t work very well. In the south of India, it’s been successful,” Unilever’s chief financial officer Graeme Pitkethly said at the Bernstein conference in London. “We have to pivot that brand in order to make it more relevant. We think we are onto something, we just have to adjust it.”

While Patanjali started as a small pharmacy in 1997, it launched more than two dozen mainstream FMCG products — from toothpastes, shampoos and other personal care products to modern-convenience foods such as cornflakes and instant noodles — over the past five years. This forced several companies, including HUL, to roll out herbal brands after witnessing a sharp consumer shift towards natural products.

Ayush was first registered as a brand by Jayalakshmi Oil & Chemical Industries in 1987 and the trademark was sold to HUL in 2001 when it started selling the natural beauty and spa product range. “Ayush is an example of a brand that we have owned for a very long time and we moved into the ayurvedic space to pick up the lifestyle choice. That’s a very strong trend within beauty and well-ness,” Pitkethly said.

Apart from Ayush, HUL acquired Indulekha haircare brand, and launched Citra skincare brand to spruce up its presence in the naturals space. Similarly, L’Oréal launched a haircare range under the Garnier Ultra Blends, made with natural ingredients, while Colgate launched natural toothpaste brand Vedshakti. In fact, 60% of all launches in 2018 were in the natural space, a 49% jump from two years ago, a recent Kantar report said.

The Patanjali threat, however, seems to be fading away. Latest data on consumer goods show that the Haridwar based company has lost market shares in nearly all categories, but for toothpaste, over the past year.

HUL, however, claimed its natural portfolio has been growing twice the rate compared to the average growth rate of the company.

“It is still a small base, but this trend is not going to go away.

And our thrust on naturals is not just a fad, it is bound to remain,” HUL chairman Sanjiv Mehta had told ET in July.

Source:- https://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/food-entertainment/personal-care-pet-supplies-liquor/ayush-relaunch-yields-only-partial-success-for-hul/71384724