Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting is entering the direct-to-consumer (D2C) arena with its global brand Bio-essence, utilizing e-commerce platforms and soon launching its own webstore. Additionally, the company plans to grow its emerging food business by introducing ethnic ready-to-cook breakfast items and South Indian snacks.
In 2012, the company acquired Bio-essence, Singapore’s foremost skincare brand with significant market presence in Taiwan and Malaysia. Wipro aims to capture the premium segment in India for the brand, focusing on areas such as facial care, cleansers, moisturizers, and toners, as stated by Neeraj Khatri, Chief Executive of Wipro Consumer Care-India.
“We are running a pilot on D2C with Bio-essence which is currently sold through some of the platforms. We have strong R&D capabilities in skin care so we can make it a success story,” he said.
Simultaneously, Wipro is exploring investments in FMCG start-ups via Wipro Consumer Care Ventures. The venture recently introduced its second fund with a corpus of INR 250 crore earlier this month. The initial fund, amounting to INR 200 crore, facilitated 10 investments.
Continue Exploring: Wipro Consumer Care – Ventures launches second fund of INR 250 Crore to boost consumer startups
“Wipro Ventures will take minority stake in emerging spaces and D2C brands, provide strategic input and guidance, but will not take full control,” said Khatri.
Regarding the food segment, Khatri mentioned that Wipro plans to introduce ethnic breakfast options and South Indian snacks, such as murukku and banana chips, targeting predominantly unorganized markets.
“The opportunities are bigger in foods than toilet soaps. We are also looking at acquisitions in spices such as blended and pure,” he said. Wipro has undertaken two food acquisitions recently in Kerala.
Wipro Consumer Care, known for its proactive approach to acquisitions, has successfully concluded 15 acquisitions over the past two decades, with three of them completed in the last 12 months. The most recent acquisition involved the purchase of three soap brands – Jo, Doy, and Bacter Shield – from VVF Limited earlier this month.
Khatri noted that the company has successfully achieved profitable growth for all its acquisitions. This success has instilled confidence in the board to continue pursuing an aggressive inorganic growth strategy. For example, Wipro has expanded the Chandrika brand sixfold since acquisition, Glucovita by nine times, Unza by seven times in the last 14 years, Yardley has witnessed a growth of 15 times, and Canway has grown in just three years.
“This year the growth rate will be lower since price growth is not there and it’s entirely driven by volume growth. While the second quarter has been better than the first, the second half of the fiscal definitely looks better,” he said.