Reliance Consumer Expands FMCG Portfolio With Soaps, Detergent To Take On Rivals
This range of home and personal care products boasts high efficacy with superior formulation, says Reliance Consumer.
Reliance Consumer Products Ltd. has launched a range of personal and home care items on Wednesday, adding to its growing portfolio of fast-moving consumer goods—a move that makes the company a formidable rival to Hindustan Unilever Ltd., ITC Ltd., and Procter & Gamble Co.
The portfolio includes beauty soaps under its Glimmer brand, hygiene soaps under its Puric, and Get Real natural soaps in the personal care space, the FMCG arm of Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. said in a statement.
In the homecare segment, it launched toilet and floor cleaners under the HomeGuard brand, Dozo dishwashing bars and liquids, and laundry detergent powder, liquid, and bars under the Enzo Smartwash brand.
"This range of home and personal care products boasts high efficacy with superior formulation," a Reliance Consumer spokesperson said. "These have been developed keeping 'real India' consumer problems at their core."
Hindustan Unilever has a dominant share in the soap and laundry market with brands including Lux, Dove, Lifebuoy and Surf Excel. HUL says nine out of 10 households in India use its brands.
Procter & Gamble, ITC, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd., Dabur India Ltd. and even regional firms like Ghadi detergent compete in a $110 billion market that is growing quickly on the back of lifestyle changes and expansion of modern retail.
But it’s not easy to displace these popular, decades-old brands.
"There are several well-entrenched players like HUL, P&G, Reckitt, Godrej Consumer at one end and regional price warriors like Ghadi, etc., at the other," said Abneesh Roy, executive director, Nuvama Institutional Equities.
"Since these categories have high entry barriers of sourcing benefit in terms of scale, high advertising spends, limited shelf space in kirana, efficient supply chains etc., Reliance will be more of a competition for regional players at lower end."
The new range of packaged goods is in addition to the cosmetics, hair oil, face wash, shower gel, and hair and beauty accessories that the company sells under its of private-label personal care brands.
Reliance's products are typically priced lower than peers in line with the company's ambition to "help every Indian household get access to quality products at reasonable price points".
The recent line-up will be available across channels, including traditional mom-and-pop stores, according to Reliance Consumer.
The firm intends to aggressively scale up these launches through omnichannel distribution across India. In the coming months to strengthen its FMCG portfolio. Reliance Retail, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, operates an integrated omnichannel network of 17,225 stores.