1 – Large-scale expansion: why Kao is placing its hopes in travel retail in China despite the difficulties of global tourism
Kao unveiled plans for large-scale entry into China’s travel retail space – at airports and downtown stores – following boom in overseas duty-free sales last year thanks to government efforts to boost domestic tourism.
Unsurprisingly, its first foray will be via Hainan Island, where the government last year increased the duty free for domestic travelers to 100,000 RMB (US $ 15,000) from 30,000 RMB.
The move comes as Kao’s cosmetics business, which includes brands such as Kanebo, Freeplus, Curél and Molton Brown, suffered due to a significant drop in inbound demand and the impact of COVID-19 restrictions. .
Despite this, the company believes the cosmetics division will remain vital to the growth of the business, CEO Yoshihiro Hasebe said at the company’s FY2020 earnings conference. “I firmly believe that cosmetics will continue to be a growth engine for sales and profits. “In addition to this, you need to know more about it.
2 – Royal Accord: Royal partnership brings Liht Organics of Singapore closer to goal of becoming a billion dollar brand
Singapore-based Liht Organics has entered into a royal partnership that she says will help accelerate plans to reach her goal of becoming a billion dollar brand in five years.
The organic makeup company recently established a strategic partnership with the Bahraini royal family.
With this partnership, the brand will be able to market its products with its Royal Seal of Approval and the approval of Her Excellency Sheikha Emanuela Al Khalifa. This opens doors to expansion opportunities for the brand in the Middle East, through the private office of HE Sheik Adulaziz bin Duaij Khalifa al Khalifa.
Additionally, Founder and CEO Nerissa Low received a coveted invitation to speak at the Royal Investment Summit in June this year, where she will be able to introduce the brand to a network of royal families and high net worth individuals.
3 – Travel boom: L’Oréal is banking on travel retail opportunities in APAC to generate “strong growth” for the group
French cosmetics giant L’Oréal sees a bright future for its brands in the Asia-Pacific travel retail market, which it says will become a major driver of future growth, driven by Chinese demand.
Despite the difficulties in global tourism caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, growth in L’Oréal’s travel retail division has been positive, largely thanks to its performance in APAC.
“With Asia, the travel retail market is growing. We believe that travel retail in Asia-Pacific has experienced double-digit growth ”, said Deputy Director General Nicolas Hieronimus.
Speaking to analysts during the company’s first quarter 2021 earnings call, L’Oréal’s new CEO estimated that APAC now accounts for 90% of travel retail business and said the company is outperforming currently on the market.
4 – Beauty disruptor: Indian MyGlamm will invest in NPD, data and offline after a funding boost – CEO
The CEO of Indian beauty brand MyGlamm outlined plans to invest in product expansion and offline as well as data science research after the Series C funding round closes.
The direct-to-consumer (DTC) beauty brand has closed a Series C INR175Cr ($ 24.2) funding round with investments from Ascent Capital, Amazon and Wipro Consumer, it announced on March 18.
With this new funding round, the company is now valued at over $ 100 million, just three years after its launch in 2017.
“We are truly excited to be able to learn from Amazon and Wipro Consumer as well as the financial rigor Ascent Capital brings as we move forward to realize our vision of building India’s largest beauty business leveraging DTC, digital and data ‘, said Darpan Sanghvi, Founder and CEO of MyGlamm.
5 – “Botanical power”: Lotus Herbals launches a new premium own beauty brand with the aim of crossing the 10 million dollar mark
Lotus Herbals has launched a new premium clean beauty brand that it believes could exceed $ 10 million this year due to strong market demand for clean beauty products.
The Indian natural beauty company designed Lotus Botanicals as a premium brand targeting the growing demand for safe and natural cosmetics, which has accelerated in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Lotus Botanicals is a botanical powerhouse of clean beauty that is pure, potent and truly transformative. It was conceptualized and organized after months of social listening and interactions with consumers ”,said Nitin Passi, Managing Director of Lotus Herbals.
“The idea of the brand is linked to providing beauty solutions specific to the problems consumers face today. We have seen a growing segment of savvy and educated consumers looking for safer, cleaner products. These consumers already know what kind of ingredients would work well for their problems. We saw this gap in our existing offering and started working on a new brand that would absorb all of these qualities. “In addition to this, you need to know more about it.
