Raymond Consumer Care, the FMCG arm of the Raymond Group, which sells personal grooming items such as deodorant and perfume under Park Avenue brand, is doubling down on its business.

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The company, which reported a revenue of Rs 600 crore in FY20, is now on an expansion spree and is entering new categories under both its Park Avenue and Kamasutra brands.

The focus for the company now is on expanding its fragrance, grooming and sexual wellness categories as it targets a growth of 17-19 percent over the next three years. Raymond Consumer Care currently gets around 80 percent of its revenue from fragrances products and condoms.

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"Our core is a high growth space. The penetration of fragrances is only 13 percent in this country and commercial condoms is only 4 percent. So, the game plan is to be a dominant fragrance and sexual wellness player," Sudhir Langer, CEO of Raymond Consumer Care told CNBC-TV18.

Under Park Avenue, which has been a men's grooming brand until now, the company is set to foray into women’s fragrances where it will launch products targeted towards women as a customer base.

"Similarly, sports has been a space where we haven't been focusing on. So, we have some activity planned on that front as well that we will scale up on,” Langer said.

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Raymond Consumer Care is also looking to launch a portfolio of men’s grooming products as what Langer says is the ‘next stage of evolution’ for the brand that currently sells soaps, after-shave lotions, hair gels, etc. This will see the company launching premium products such as face washes, premium after shave lotions and beard and hair grooming products.

"It's a digital forward game plan to enter the exploding men’s grooming space. Also, products that work well and become successful in online and modern trade space will get extended to kirana stores as well." Langer said.

Under its other major brand Kamasutra, the company is planning to enter the sexual wellness supplements and feminine hygiene categories. The idea, the company says, is to evolve the brand into a complete sexual wellness ecosystem.

"We have a chemist relationship of 2.5 lakh outlets, primarily operated with condoms. We plan to enter categories like sexual wellness where the category itself is 1.5 times the size of condoms. These will be emergency contraceptive pills, feminine hygiene washes, men’s libido supplements, etc. The idea is to create an entire sexual wellness ecosystem that not only helps us help our chemist relationship but establish ourselves as a leading player in this category," the CEO said.

As part of its expansion plan, Raymond Consumer Care is also looking to add more price points to its products in a bid to reach more customers.

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"Our strength is that we already have a high value brick-and-mortar business and so for many of these categories, we are not dependent on unit economics to fund the business. So, there are some attractive propositions to offer our products in mass at a price point that is reasonable and attractive for consumers in the heartlands of the country as well," he said.

The company’s expansion plans come after a year where it took a hit during the first quarter of FY21 due to the lockdown restrictions imposed across the country. However, a foray into hygiene products like hand sanitisers and floor cleaners helped the company get back on its feet and add 10 percent to revenues.

Going ahead, despite the second wave, the company is upbeat about its growth in the medium to long term, especially as access to essentials continues.

“It’s a very dynamic landscape out there. We are seeing that governments are careful not to lockdown kirana stores and as long as people can access the stores and hence our products, we have seen that base line of consumption has continued through the pandemic. We don’t know when the second wave will end, but the upside I see is that it won’t be a crippling disruption like last year, and we see a very fast resurgence as soon as we are out of the second wave,” Langer added.

(Edited by : Jomy)