Henkel Cosmetics – Professional, a subsidiary of Germany headquartered Henkel AG, is focussing on its premium and profitable brand Schwarzkopf, to drive the business in India. After almost a decade in the country, Schwarzkopf would be doubling the number of salons.

At present, Schwarzkopf has tie-ups with almost 5,000 salons and holds 18 per cent share in the segment. It has exclusive tie-ups with salons such as Lakme, Naturals and Bounce. Others in the segment include brands such as market leader L’Oreal and Wella (P&G).

Murali Sundar, Country Head, Henkel Cosmetics said, “Schwarzkopf has been profitable since 2008, but we got into the red with the low end brand of Indola which was launched last year. We are increasing our presence as competition is heating up and branding through salons is going to help to fight competitors such as L’Oreal.”

L’Oreal has an edge in terms of local manufacturing. It also has the equity of its retail brands (in shampoos and cosmetics) and its advertising has a rub off on the salon business as well, unlike Schwarzkopf which has remained confined to the B2B segment as a salon offering.

“We have constraints compared to competitors such as L’Oreal as we do not have a retail presence and have also entered the market much after them. Today, we intend fighting them in the salon business and going beyond exclusive tie-ups with beauty parlours to give consumers a choice,” he added.

Henkel is restricting the number of Indola salons (currently at 7,000 salons). It was introduced last year to bring volumes into the salon business, priced at a 35 per cent discount to the premium brand of Schwarzkopf.

It is pitted against L’Oreal’s Matrix brand in the low end segment.

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