We want to increase ad spend by 50% in the next FY: Anupam Katheriya, Cholayil

The legendary Tamil film director K Balachandar has been quoted saying that his 1970 blockbuster film Apoorva Raagangal, introduced two superstars - Rajinikanth and Medimix. In the film, the character Ranjani (played by actor Jayasudha) plays a Medimix soap salesgirl.

The brand recently completed 50 years and is today the world’s largest-selling Ayurvedic soap. Starting in 1969 with its flagship brand Medimix, Cholayil Pvt Ltd (CPL) portfolio includes brands like Cuticura, Krishna Thulasi amongst others.

In conversation with Simran Sabherwal, Anupam Katheriya, CEO, Cholayil, tells us how the brand built on the back of an Ayurvedic heritage has transformed into a contemporary brand with an Ayurvedic heritage

Excerpts:

It’s been over six months since you took over as the CEO. How has the journey been?
It’s been an exciting journey. CPL is a great organisation with strong brands, good business practices and highly energetic talent. Medimix is not only popular in India but also gets sold to 30+ countries. During the last seven months, I have had the opportunity to travel across the country and export markets to meet our teams in field, factories and offices. I have also met our business associates where we have found common grounds to scale up our business. We have worked together to strengthen our brand positioning, streamlined operations, identified innovation opportunities and growth streams. I met consumers and it excites me to see the power of the brand and the consumers’ love for it.

Your appointment mandate states that the direction for you is to drive the company to over Rs 1,000 crore in revenue in the next 4-5 years. What are the top three things on your agenda to drive this growth?

We have prepared our roadmap for growth which has been approved by the board. Our 1K plan has identified key areas of growth and investments for our business in the next four to five years.

We have implemented a 4S strategy to drive growth agenda:
i. Simplify – We are reviewing our processes, our ways of working to see how we can simplify, become more efficient. Simplification would give us space to manage additional work as we scale up our operations.
ii. Strengthen – We will be strengthening our core brands, markets and teams to get competitive edge. We have plans to increase our investment to further strengthen our position in the market and expand our product range to premium and new categories.
iii. Synergize – We are working on creating synergy within the organization, structure and planning process. Our endevour is to find out solutions to upcoming challenges and get things done first time right via proactive planning, coordination and cooperation. Within the portfolio of brands, we are looking to create synergy between the brands and the portfolio. The changes will reflect soon in the product portfolio and communication. We are also bringing synergy in how we connect with consumers.
iv. Scale up – We are building our capability, talent and process to realise our 1K dream. Towards this we are investing in technology, people, process and AI led decision making

In the immediate future, we would be investing in 3 Ps:
i. Product Portfolio: We would be increasing our spends on brands significantly over next few years to accelerate consumer awareness and brand preference. We are looking to increase our ad spends by 50% in the next FY.
ii. People: We are investing in upskilling our talent via PATHSHALA initiative. In spaces where we have talent crunch in identified growth areas, we are looking for building teams in near future.
iii. Processes: We are increasing our capex in production capacities where we have just acquired land near our Haridwar factory to augment our existing production capacities and support our growth ambition for next five years. We are also investing in IT where we are digitising and bringing in AI in our decision making process, especially in sales and marketing functions.

Could you tell us what’s been the growth over the last one year?

We are not a listed company and hence we do not declare our performance numbers. However, our growth rate for last few years have been in high double digit and we are growing faster than the FMCG industry overall. We have witnessed substantial increase in household penetration and our product extensions have been well received. Our campaigns have performed well leading to increase in brand trust scores and consumer offtakes.

Which are your largest markets? Which regions are seen as the growth drivers?

Medimix is a household name with significant share in our core markets like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi and UP. We have identified emerging markets – in the eastern and northern part of India. We have seen well balanced growth coming from our core markets and emerging markets. In markets where we have good penetration, we are looking at increase share of consumer basket with range expansion and premiumisation. In emerging markets, we are focusing on increasing penetration where Medimix will be the face of the company.

Medimix is the legacy brand in the portfolio and the brand on-boarded Katrina Kaif as your brand ambassador. How has this partnership helped build brand salience, particularly in your target key markets?

To lift up the brand persona we roped in a popular Bollywood face 'Katrina Kaif' as our brand ambassador last year. We wanted to reach out to a new set of consumers, and Katrina is an apt fit for our campaign as she connects with this audience. We launched a 360-degree campaign with an active presence on TV, capturing print activations, Outdoor support and surround Digital extension to communicate the superiority of our product vs. other options available in the market. Our new campaign communication emphasized presence of uniqueness 18 herbs in Medimix addressing skin conditions thus empowering you to go all out with the thought of '#SkinFit Raho, Manmarziyaan Karo with Medimix'.

We've conducted multiple consumer connects to ascertain the impact achieved. In conclusion, the brand imagery has lifted and Ayurvedic credentials have strengthened. Medimix scored very high on consumer trust. Our brand positioning of 'get #SkinFit with fast-acting Ayurveda' has resonated well with our consumers. We've seen a significant jump in 'new to brand' consumers which has resulted in an increase in Household penetration, the Household penetration in core market has moved up by 5% in the last 2 years. Consumers have loved our product and we continue to see high repeat rates proving the same. Medimix has been one of the fastest-growing brands in terms of Household growth and is visible across channels and markets. This partnership helped increase the brand consideration and is fuelling our growth.

Medimix has over the years expanded with brand extensions/ variants. How has this worked out?

Medimix stood for one product which is the classic soap with which we entered households. The brand has evolved and contemporized its packaging and products, in tune with the consumer preferences and trends. Medimix has successfully pivoted from mass market classic soap to Value added soap like Glycerine. In addition, the brand has successfully moved to Body wash category where consumers have appreciated the efficacy of our products. A large part of our Bodywash gets exported where consumers have shown high loyalty for our products. Our Medimix facewash has been loved by consumers and has received very high consumer satisfaction scores. Like all our products, Medimix facewash is highly efficacious. Our anti pimple face wash provides visible reduction in pimple in three days. While we do not publish our internal sales numbers, over a period of time the contribution of value added portfolio of products has increased both in domestic and exports market.

While Medimix is the Masterbrand. You have other brands too in the portfolio – Let’s start with Cuticura and Krishna thulasi. How have they performed?

We have a well balance portfolio of brands. While on one side Medimix has significant “Do Good” mother brand equity, Cuticura has good “Feel good” indulgence equity. Cuticura was launched in 1865 in UK and over the years has build strong equity in personal care space. We acquired Cuticura in 2001 and moved brand Cuticura beyond Talc and it is now present in Deo and Soap formats. In fact, our non-talc portfolio will soon become bigger than the talc portfolio. We have contemporarised our product.

Krishna Thulasi products are based on the healing properties of Tulsi (Holy Basil) and are designed to promote overall well-being and health. Krishna Thulasi is a testament to Cholayil's commitment to traditional Ayurvedic wisdom combined with modern wellness practices. With these three brands = Medimix, Cuticura and Krishna Thulasi we have a complete mass range.

Experience is a big part of the brand play now. With Sadayush, how are you planning to take the Ayurveda experience to your consumers?

Sadayush is our Aurvedic wellness center (Panchakarma treatments) which offers a holistic approach to health and well-being with the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda. Our Ayurvedic vertical is divided into three distinct segments: Treatment, Wellness, and Beauty. Sadayush Ayurvedic Treatments encompass a realm of wellness that is deeply rooted in the age-old wisdom of authentic Kerala Ayurveda. We recently revamped and relaunched our centre and have added new offerings. Our aspiration is to scale up this model because this provides consumers’ an opportunity to experience the Ayurvedic benefit.

Coming to Sadhev – your premium D2C offering, can you tell us about it?

Sadhev is our D2C business arm and a premium luxury beauty brand offering. Products from Sadhev are infused with insights from traditional Ayurveda, delicately blended with pure ingredients, sourced responsibly and carefully from Sadhev’s own 80 acre sustainably grown organic sanctuary- Sadhevana in South India. This completes our entire portfolio. Sadhev has completed four years. We have grown rapidly and already made 6X our first year number. We have seen a 40% repeat rate in certain categories. We are looking at expanding this portfolio in future.

A lot of new brands – particularly in the D2c space and also major FMCG brands – have entered the Ayurveda beauty space in the last five to 10 years. What differentiates your proposition?

In a dynamic market, it's essential to evolve and adapt. While we've witnessed a surge of new entrants, Medimix's strength lies in its heritage and authenticity. We've been at the forefront of Ayurvedic skincare for over half a century, and our formulations are steeped in traditional wisdom brought into a contemporary format.
What sets Medimix apart is our unwavering commitment to purity and efficacy. Our products are rooted in genuine Ayurvedic principles, and we source the finest natural ingredients for our formulations. Many of our products, ingredients and actives are backward integrated, cultivated and procured from our own farm thereby ensuring our products have high efficacy. This, combined with our stringent quality standards, gives us a distinct edge in the market.

What is the growth that you see in the next 12 to 18 months?

Some of our summer-dependent product lines, including our COOL TALC and DEO ranges, have experienced a downturn in performance this year because of a late summer and unseasonal rains, consistent with industry trends. We anticipate that this factor may temporarily impact our growth this year, in contrast to the sustained high double-digit growth we've been experiencing. However, we are confident that with the interventions planned we will be back to our growth trajectory in the 2nd half of the year. This growth will be led by all part of business both in International and domestic markets. Medimix and Cuticura would be power brands would lead this growth trajectory.

New launches that we are likely to see?
To strengthen our business, we would be re-launching some of our products in H2. This includes Medimix body wash range and Cuticura range in domestic market. We would also be relaunching Medimix soaps in Middle East markets. As per of 1K strategy we have identified new consumer spaces where our brand will get extended. Our development work has already started and we plan to launch some of these products next year.