

As premium personal care booms, ITC stays measured on acquisitions
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. MUMBAI : As India’s personal care market gets increasingly crowded and legacy fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) firms rush to buy venture capital-backed brands, ITC Ltd is deliberately slowing down and staying guarded on acquisitions, Sameer Satpathy, divisional chief executive of ITC’s personal care products business, told Mint in a conversation. ITC’s older personal care acquisitions including Savlon, bought in 2015, and Nimyle, bought in 2018, have grown to six to seven times their original size, Satpathy said.
Yet unlike listed rivals such as Hindustan Unilever and Marico, ITC is not rushing to buy independent brands that have mushroomed across niches in India’s booming personal care market. “The headroom to grow in personal care categories is enormous," Satpathy said. “Some new brands enter categories but not everyone is able to sustain their presence." India’s personal care market was last estimated to be worth $21 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow to $34 billion by 2028, according to a report by beauty retailer Nykaa and strategy consulting firm Redseer.
The overall market is growing at 10–11% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), while online channels are expanding much faster, at about 25% CAGR. So far, ITC’s more recent personal care investments have been limited to baby care brand Mother Sparsh, and Mylo, an app offering content and products for expecting and new mothers. ITC acquired a 10% stake for just under ₹40 crore in Mylo in 2022 and has been investing in Mother Sparsh in tranches since 2021.
In April last year, it agreed to acquire the balance shares of Mother Sparsh by sometime this year. In total, ITC would have invested ₹126 crore to buy the company. “When we
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