At the close of its first year of operations, Body Shop had 16 stores in India. Next year, in 2009, it had 35. It hopes to close this calendar year with 30 more stores, and reach another 150 standalone stores within the coming three years.
India has proven to be happy hunting ground for UK-based skin care brand, The Body Shop, which had, in a first, slashed prices for about 200 of its approximately 1,200 SKUs in India last year. Earlier this week, it slashed prices by about 35% for another 600 SKUs, the vast Indian hinterland firmly in sight. This puts the company?s products between the price range of Rs 125 and Rs 1,999, putting in the ?affordable? category.
?We see ourselves as a ?masstige? brand, somewhere between mass and prestige,? explains Singapore-based Jonathan Price, managing director (Asia-Pacific) for the brand. Hesitant to term the reductions in prices a correction, the brand nevertheless feels it will it reach its target of capturing about 5% of the market in India, similar to its market share in Singapore and Hong Kong. While earlier expansion had been largely in the metros, current cities on its list include Indore, Vadodara, Amritsar and Lucknow.
Though part of the expansion will in departmental stores, the stress will also be on expansion of mono-brand stores, says Sameer Prasad, COO, Planet Retail Holdings, the franchisee partner for Body Shop in India. ?We have the first-mover advantage in the cosmetics and toiletries (C&T) market,? he adds. Body Shop, the brand started by Anita Roddick, came to India about three years ago. It was bought over by cosmetics giant L?oreal in 2006 and since then there have been signs of a repositioning of the brand to cater to a wider market. Currently, there are about 3,500 stores globally in 60 countries. The company grew 0.7% in the last financial year globally. It declines to state country-specific growth figures, but has been buoyed by its performance in India, chorus the top honchos of the company.
?In Asia, India is the number one growth country for us,? beams Price, who puts it among the six markets in the region to watch out for. Prasad says the company is targeting sales worth Rs 100 crore in the next year and hopes to reach Rs 250-300 crore in the next three years. Incidentally, this reduction in prices is specific to India. ?We have different competition in different countries,? explains Price.
Not that there haven?t been challenges. ?We entered India at a time when the market was booming, and finding the right location at the right price was an issue,? says Price, adding, ?At that point, we used to approach mall developers, now they approach us. Now it is prestigious to have a Body Shop outlet in the mall,? he says.
He says the recession helped by lowering rentals, which has made expansion more realistic.
As for consumer behaviour, Price admires the high awareness levels of the average Indian consumer. A marked success story in India are the men?s ranges, which account for about 6% of the sales, the highest among region?s markets, says price. Skin care ranges are the top sellers, followed by bath and body. ?The White Musk for men is proving to be very popular,? he adds.
?Body Shop loves you?, is what the current campaign is called. The next few years will indicate whether the emotion is reciprocated by the Indian Jane.