Honasa Consumer, the parent company of Mamaearth, The Derma Co, and Aqualogica has acquired Godrej Consumers' (GCPL's) 30 percent stake in BBLUNT for Rs 84.5 crore. Honasa will also acquire BBLUNT salons, along with its premium hair care, hair colour and styling product range with an overall deal value of Rs 134 crore.

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As part of the deal, Honasa will operate and manage BBLUNT's hair care and styling products business while BBLUNT salon business will continue to operate as an independent entity, with the founding team Adhuna Bhabani, Osh Bhabani and Avan Contractor as creative directors and Spoorthy Shetty as CEO, a company statement said.

The partnership aims to strengthen BBLUNT as a trendy millennial brand and help it utilise Honasa's D2C and E-commerce strength to scale up business.

Commenting on the acquisition, Varun Alagh, Co-Founder and CEO, Honasa Consumer said, "BBLUNT, as a brand, has been ahead of its time with its innovative product portfolio and its digital presence. The brand has carved a niche for itself and considering the market size of Rs 6000 crore in hair color and hairstyling, the brand has potential to grow exponentially. Being a house of brands, Honasa Consumer has attained expertise in building millennial brands with a digital-first approach. We will utilise our expertise and proficiency in digital marketing to accelerate the growth and scale of BBLUNT. Since the brands synergize on fundamental principles and strong millennial connect, we are confident that BBLUNT will be a great addition to the Honasa Consumer portfolio."

With The Derma Co, and Aqualogica already in its portfolio Honasa aims to create a house of brands for personal care. In December last year, it bought Momspresso and Momspresso MyMoney to strengthen its content-to-commerce play.

Founded by Adhuna and Ashoke Bhabani, BBLUNT has built a formidable brand in the salon and hair care space over the last two decades. "The brand’s strength lies in its extensive experience of styling Bollywood celebrities and transferring the salon experience & expertise into high quality products. Over the last decade the brand has built a diverse and revolutionary product portfolio. The product portfolio currently consists of hair colors, shampoos, dry shampoos, conditioners, styling products, serums & temporary hair colors. The product insights have come from stylist and consumer interaction and tested in the salon on real consumers – to build a product line crafted especially for Indian hair, weather, and water conditions. This has been the primary distinguishing factor for the brand and has been pivotal in crafting an incredibly unique, carefully considered, beautifully designed product line," the company said.

"The BBLUNT journey has been an extraordinary one, it is a life's work that led to the creation of our very own product range. BBLUNT and Honasa Consumer Pvt ltd share a strong synergy and common brand values. Honasa is a strong player in the Direct to consumer/e-commerce space and they see great potential in the brand and the salon heritage that we have. We, the team, are very excited to see what the future holds in this exciting new chapter for the brand,” said Adhuna, Founder and Director of BBLUNT.

Spoorthy Shetty, CEO, BBLUNT added, ”This is a significant milestone for our business and is a testament to the outstanding team we have assembled, the rapidly scaling salon business we have created, with a solid academy and shoot vertical that we have developed. We are excited about the acquisition, and we look forward to supporting Honasa’s growth ambitions. This is a win-win situation for both companies and the expected synergies will allow us to broaden our customer, product, geographical & technological base. Our clients will continue to receive the same high quality service, which they have come to expect.”

The global beauty and personal care market is expected to touch $725 billion by 2025, according to a report by Avendus. India has added 80 million online shoppers in the last three years alone to reach 130 million. As per the Avendus report, estimated Beauty and Personal Care market size in India is expected to reach $28 billion in 2025.

While ecommerce penetration, technology awareness, internet expansion, diverse offerings, and reasonable product cost are some of the major reasons behind the success of D2C brands, the Covid-19 pandemic gave the ultimate push.

India currently has over 80 D2C brands across beauty, personal care, cosmetics, and men’s grooming segments. Some of the beauty & personal care brands that have gained popularity over the last few years include - Nykaa, Sugar, Mamaearth, Wow Skin Science, JustHerbs, The ManCompany, MyGlamm, Skinkraft, Plum, Beardo and many more. As the D2C playbook evolved, so did the kind of companies going D2C. Beauty, makeup and personal care have turned out to be the largest segment in the market and drive maximum consumer interest.

In the last year, India’s flush with capital D2C companies have taken the inorganic route to growth. Good Glamm Group, the parent company of beauty and personal care brand MyGlamm, has been on an acquisition spree. It has acquired companies like Sirona, The Moms Co, St. Botanica, BabyChakra, Miss Malini Entertainment and Vidooly and more in an effort to create a commerce to content behemoth catering to the needs of the millennial market.

Nykaa bought online jewellery brand Pipa Bella to capture the growing market for contemporary fashion jewellery in India. Marico acquired a 60% stake in Apcos Naturals Private Limited, which owns the Ayurvedic beauty brand ‘Just Herbs’ for an undisclosed amount. Meanwhile, FMCG major Emami bought a strategic stake of 45.96 percent in Helios Lifestyle (The Man Company) in August last year.

According to a report by Praxis Global Alliance (PGA) Labs and Knowledge Capital, between 2014 and 2020, investors pumped in $1.4 billion into D2C brands, of which 54% went into the beauty and fashion segment. This trend continued into 2021 as well. Wipro Ventures and Amazon invested $71 million in MyGlamm in July 2021, while in March ChrysCapital put $50 million into Wow Skin Science and Sequoia Capital India led a $45 million round in Purplle.

Founded in 2016, Honasa serves over 5 million consumers across 500 Indian cities. It closed FY2021 with an annual revenue run rate of Rs 460 cr and expects to double the ARR this fiscal. Honasa aims to become a billion-dollar FMCG conglomerate in the next 5 years. Earlier in January, Honasa Consumer raised $52 million led by Sequoia to enter the coveted unicorn club, at a valuation of $1.2 billion.

First Published:Feb 14, 2022 6:57 PM IST