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June 22, 2026
Sharleen D’souza & Shivani Shinde, Business Standard
Mumbai, 21 June 2026
Online beauty marketplaces Reliance Retail Ventures’ Tira and Nykaa have a common mantra: growing in-house brands. Successful brand acquisitions and margin growth seem to fuel the push.
“With private labels, margins are better. It also helps both companies plug the gap in the market which other brands are not present in,” Devangshu Dutta, chief executive officer (CEO) of Third Eyesight, told Business Standard. Within in-house brands, products need some investment in research and development (R&D), he explained.
Harish Bijoor, brand and business strategy consultant at Harish Bijoor Consults, said that margins are better for platforms with in-house brands.“Typically most companies are getting insular. The idea is to own brands and own the profits from those brands. When you are a marketplace, you put in effort for other brands, this strategy helps marketplaces lock in on profits instead of losing out to other brands, which sell on the platform,” he said.
At the 49th annual general meeting of Reliance Industries (RIL) on Friday, Isha Ambani, executive director of Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd, and non-executive director of RIL, had laid out plans for Tira. “We will scale our own brands to consumers across India and beyond, ensuring Indian beauty prod-
ucts stand proudly alongside the world’s leading global giants.”
Its in-house brands include Puraveda, Pahadi Local, haircare brand Anomaly, which was recently acquired from actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and skincare and make-up brand Akind, which it co-created with Mira Rajput Kapoor. Its portfolio also includes Nails Our Way and Dream Immerse Play.
Ambani’s statement had come a day after Nykaa’s management had also hinted at expanding its in-house brands on its investor day on Thursday. The platform, operated by FSN E-Commerce Ventures, outlined an ambitious road map to become an over $5 billion beauty and lifestyle business.
The growth of Nykaa’s “House of Brands” is expected to be significant. The management aims to be the largest house of brands business in India by financial year 2030 (FY30). Management has guided toward a net sale value (NSV) compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30 per cent over FY26-30, taking the NSV from Rs. 1,700 crore in FY26 to Rs. 5,000 crore by FY30.
The “House of Nykaa” GMV grew over 65 per cent in FY26, with an improvement in profitability. In a report on the company’s focus on in-house brands business, Motilal Oswal said, “House of Brands is expected to grow faster than the core marketplace business and become a meaningfully larger contributor to group revenues and profits by FY30. We believe profit contribution is expected to increase disproportionately, given the higher gross margins, stronger pricing control, and lower dependence on third-party brands.”
Nykaa’s platform creates a structural incubation advantage, it said. “Fashion today serves about 300,000 styles across categories, while customer discovery increasingly happens through content, personalisation, and creator-led commerce. This allows the company to identify emerging brands and categories early, before allocating capital behind them,” the report added.
As of the fourth quarter of financial year (FY26), “House of Nykaa” had 12 brands across Beauty and Fashion categories at various growth stages, and two successful acquisitions of Dot & Key and Earth Rhythm. Dot & Key has grown 13 times over the last three years, while Kay Beauty has grown three times over this period, said the company. During the Q4FY26 results, the company had said that the strong performance of “House of Nykaa” had impacted margins positively. P Ganesh, chief financial officer, FSN E-Commerce while explaining the margin growth said, “…with gross margin improving by 132 basis points
in FY26, led by strong performance of House of Nykaa and improved service income across businesses.”
For FY26, “House of Nykaa” delivered a strong Rs. 3,176 crore of GMV. “That’s an about 50 per cent year-on-year increase. Served more than 17 million consumers and expanded distribution beyond online as well to 150,000 GT doors. As a reminder, this unit includes brands across beauty and fashion, seven brands in Beauty and in Fashion five brands, with an increased focus on one in particular, which is Nykd,” said Adwaita Nayar, executive director, cofounder and chief executive officer, “House of Nykaa Brands”, during the fourth quarter results.
(Published in Business Standard)
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June 12, 2026
Christina Moniz, Financial Express/Brand Wagon
12 June 2026
Legacy luggage brand VIP Industries is shedding some of its old baggage. The company, which manufactures Skybags and Aristocrat along with its flagship VIP range, has gone beyond cringey makeovers solely to attract Gen Z, and has embarked on a transformation journey that leverages its legacy to purvey a fresh range of offerings.
The company is modernising its digital presence and supply chain to catch up with competitors.
Managing director Atul Jain admits that the company has been a bit slow on the e-commerce front. It is reinventing its online store, while also making its products available across other e-commerce channels. “Quick commerce is becoming an important channel since there are several use occasions and segments within the luggage market. For instance, consumers often make last-minute purchases for a weekend trip via quick commerce. School bags and backpacks for kids, also great gifting options, are seeing good demand on these platforms,” he says
The company, which once dominated the ₹16,000 crore organised luggage market in India, saw a bit of a shakeup last year when the Piramal family sold 32% of its stake to a private equity firm. But it continues to be among the top three players in the category with a 29-30% market share. “Luggage plays the role of a traveller’s companion. We are creating designs to fit that role,” says Jain. “For example, our new VIP suitcases have a coffee cup holder and our cabin trolley bag has an easy access compartment for devices like laptops and iPads.”
The transformation goes beyond the product. VIP’s 350 exclusive physical retail touchpoints in the country are being revamped to offer a new customer experience.
Unpacking opportunities
Overits 55 years, VIP has grown from a briefcase brand into Asia’s largest luggage maker, housing labels like Skybags, Aristocrat, and Carlton (premium segment). While VIP is a premium offering targeted at business and travellers, its Aristocrat brand operates in the mass market and the budget-friendly Alfa targets consumers who typically shop in the unbranded segment. Aristocrat and Alfa together contributed upwards of 40% to the company’s revenue in FY25, followed by Skybags (28%) and VIP (20%).
Like many legacy brands, the VIP Industries’ faces the challenge to ia, stay relevant among Gen Z buyers as a plethora of digital-first brands swamp the market. “VIP has lost ground on relevance and desirability to a generation for whom luggage, like sneakers, is an expression of identity. To them, VIP feels like their parents’ brand,” says Nisha Sampath, managing partner, Bright Angles Consulting. D2C players in the category operate in the business of “lifestyle accessories” and not for “luggage” per se, she points out.
With a design-forward approach, incorporating features like compression systems, silent wheels and charging ports, these new-age brands have embedded themselves in travel “culture”, while also being Instagram worthy, say experts.
Jain says Skybags is VIP’s Gen Z focussed brand, which has over 8,20,000 Instagram followers. “We are sharpening our positioning for Skybags in our design, advertising and marketing outreach, especially on social platforms. The brand has a clear differentiation with youthful colours and prints to attract younger consumers,” he adds.
While D2C players have seen notable growth in recent years, they don’t have the kind of trust and brand equity that VIP has cultivated across its brands, nor do they have the scale or revenue that legacy brands have, he says.
Experts believe there is a significant growth opportunity for legacy players given that the unbranded market still accounts for ₹13,000-14,000 crore. The important lever for legacy brands is to clearly demonstrate value beyond price. “The unorganised market competes heavily on affordability, so organised players need to communicate durability, warranty, after-sales service, and consistent quality – areas where they have a strong inherent advantage over unorganised alternatives,” says Praveen Govindu, partner at Deloitte India. He adds that these brands should also invest in advertising and communicate this value to the end consumer.
Not only are the needs different among different consumer groups, competitive pressures are also diverse. “VIP can segment the market more cleanly with its portfolio of brands if it maintains absolute distinction to ensure clear consumer targeting across not just product attributes and pricing, but also communication and channels,” says Devangshu Dutta, CEO, Third Eyesight.
(Published in Financial Express)
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May 27, 2026
Kartikey Kashyap, Financial Express
27 May 2026
Three campaigns took home the Grand Prix awards from Goafest this year: Kansai Nerolac Paints”The Barefoot Journey” by Tribes Commu-nication in the Media category; Mountain Dew’s “Darescore” by Leo in Digital & Technology; and Center fruit (Perfetti Van Melle India)” Kaisi Jeebh Laplapayee”” by Perfetti’s in-house team in the Best Use of Voice/Technology category.
All three were exceptionally creative and scored high on likeability and novelty. There was another common element that tied the three together: How they used creativity to solve real brand problems.
Take PepsiCo’s Mountain Dew Darescore campaign. Nepal’s tourism economy relies heavily on mountaineering, but over 90% of global tourist revenue flows into Mount Everest. As a result, there is overcrowding on Everest, starving the country’s other formidable peaks of income and attention.
Enter Mountain Dew. In partner-ships with the Nepal Tourism Board and the Discovery Channel, the brand built the world’s first algorithmic mountain grading system. Leo aggregated decades of expedition records, terrain complexity maps, seasonal weather hazards, rescue failure rates, and first-hand Sherpa wisdom. They funneled these metrics into an engine and assigned a quantifiable “Dare Score” to individual peaks. This data visually demonstrated that height does not equal danger, giving climbers an scale to gauge terrain toughness.
The genius of the campaign was its consumer utility. Mountain Dew printed smart QR codes on millions of its beverage bottles. When a user scanned the bottle, it unlocked an immersive digital hub, where users could simulate climbs, map out route plans, read real-time weather conditions, and submit expedition inquiries. The campaign took Mountain Dew’s slogan, “Darr Ke Aage Jeet Hai” and algorithmically decoded it for real-world application.
The result: It Swept Goafest 2026 and collected medals across vastly different categories including Integrated, Brand Experience, Social Content, and Video Craft, besides the Grand Prix. “Darescore is a powerful example of how brands are moving from storytelling to measurable participation. For decades, adventure culture celebrated only the final summit. This campaign changed the lens, it quantified courage itself,” says Prabhakar Mundkur, director, advertising & media, Percept. “What made this Grand Prix-worthy was the fusion of technology, gaming logic, data and brand philosophy into one seamless experience.”
If the Darescore campaign embedded data into storytelling, Nerolac chose to stay away from the beaten path. Its “Barefoot Journey” was a hyper-local activation designed by Tribes Communication for Nerolac Perma NoHeat, an acrylic-based, heat-reflective exterior coating. The campaign focused entirely on real-world product performance.
Every summer devotees visit various religious sites and walk barefoot along sweltering walkways or wait in queues on hot concrete floors.
Along with local authorities, the teams coated thewalkways of several high-footfall temples across south-ern India with Nerolac Perma NoHeat paint. The paint reduced the surface temperature of the pathways by up to 15°C offering relief to devotees.
This campaign won the jury over with its simplicity. According to Devangshu Dutta, founder & CEO, Third Eyesight, “Though the campaign might target a small audience, it made an impact by shifting the frame,” Dutta points out. “The campaign turned advertising into lived experience,” Mundkur says. “People didn’t just hear a claim, they felt it. This is media not as interruption, but as empathy.”
For its part, Centre fruit brought back its hoary “Kaisi Jeebh Lapla-payee” tagline using generative AI. Teaming up with WPP, BharatGPT.ai and Google Cloud, Perfetti created voice-based GenAl interactions in local dialects that turned feature phones smart. “What made the experience special was that it felt less like advertising and more like a conversation,” says Gunjan Khetan, director marketing, Perfetti Van Melle. Al was an enabler of accessibility and a tool to build cultural relevance, Khetan adds. “The brilliance lay in how it con-verted a simple sensory reaction -the uncontrollable craving triggered by taste – into a scalable interactive idea. It was playful, memorable and unmistakably Indian. More importantly, it proved that consistency in -brand codes, when combined with fresh execution, can become a formidable creative asset,” Mundkur says.
There you have it. Winning creative awards is validating, but solving the client’s problems through that creativity remains the bellringer.
(Published in Financial Express)
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January 7, 2026
Writankar Mukherjee & Shabori Das, Economic Times / Brand Equity
7 January 2026
There’s a renewed sparkle in the adage ‘Old is Gold’ at India’s biggest conglomerate Reliance. Banking on Indians’ nostalgia, it is hawking and reviving labels that once defined everyday life, Campa and BPL among them, to set its consumer venture’s cash registers ringing.
What started with sales of Rs. 3,000 crore in FY24, Reliance Industries’ fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) business quickly accelerated towards Rs. 11,500 crore the following year. With a staggering Rs. 5,400 crore posted in the July to September FY26 quarter alone, the revival story is clearly striking a chord with consumers. But Campa, already the largest contributor to the Reliance Industries’ FMCG business, is only the beginning.
The company is injecting fresh life into acquisition of legacy brands such as Ravalgaon in confectionery and Velvette in personal care. Reliance is applying the same formula to the consumer electronics business, covering televisions, refrigerators and washing machines. Once a staple of Indian households, Kelvinator and BPL are being reintroduced.
Strategy Rings a Bell?
Driving this revival is a strategy Reliance knows well: aggressive pricing that is often 20 to 30% lower than competitors, offering generous trade margins to woo retailers, and a rapid expansion of distribution from its own stores to kiranas and local outlets, alongside local sourcing and an expanding product portfolio.
It’s a playbook that once created waves in the telecom market; this time, however, it comes with a generous dose of nostalgia.
The path ahead though may not be easy. While Campa may have yielded results in a category linked to instant gratification, electronics is a high-ticket, long-term purchase. Marketers are debating whether consumers in their 20s and 30s—spoilt for choice by global brands—would choose a Kelvinator refrigerator, a BPL TV or a Velvette shower gel over LG, Samsung, Dove or Fiama.
Deep Pockets and Retail Muscle
Reliance, experts say, has two advantages— its balance sheet and strong market presence with its own retail stores. “Reliance has the intent to dominate a market in whatever business it enters. Their brands in FMCG and electronics too have a more-than-decent chance of surviving and thriving,” says Devangshu Dutta, founder and chief executive of Third Eyesight, a consultancy in consumer space.
“As long as they have capital and management capability, they may cut their teeth,” he says.
The company is approaching the FMCG and electronics businesses in startup mode, but with deep pockets. As a Reliance executive explains, the strategy is to invest and invest more, gain market share, continue to absorb losses and after achieving scale, drive efficiencies to generate profit.
The path has been carved out. Reliance Consumer Products (RCPL), the FMCG business entity and what started as a unit of Reliance Retail Ventures, is now a direct subsidiary of Reliance Industries. This shift will help the company raise funds independently and eventually launch an initial public offering (IPO), and drive valuation independent of retail. The electronic business may follow suit as it grows in scale.
Reliance did not respond to Brand Equity’s queries.
Electronics: A Tough Play
Industry executives say the electronics foray will not be an easy battle against international brands. Global brands enjoy strong appeal in the Indian market, and companies such as LG, Samsung and Sony have been present for over two decades, cementing their position. Even the newer ones like Haier and Voltas Beko are rapidly gaining market share.
Pulkit Baid, director of the electronics retail chain Great Eastern Retail, says that unlike the cola industry, where two large players (Coca-Cola and PepsiCo) dominate, consumer durables are highly fragmented. “Kelvinator enjoys the brand heritage of an Ambassador car. But we will have to see if the brand is welcomed by Gen Z with the same euphoria as Campa.”
Industry veteran Deba Ghoshal notes that very few legacy brands have been able to withstand the onslaught of new-age brands in consumer electronics. Voltas (from the Tatas) and Godrej are exceptions, he adds.
“Reliance Retail has the strategic foresight to re-establish legacy brands in consumer durables space, instead of chasing a standalone private label business,” adds Ghoshal. “There is a strong opportunity in BPL and Kelvinator, provided they are re-launched with strong value and engaging emotive hooks, and not restricted to being a price warrior. Reliance has the capability; it just needs the right strategy.”
Reliance is readying campaigns for BPL and Kelvinator to connect with the younger consumers. The company is planning to re-launch them beyond Reliance Retail stores—targeting regional retail chains and e-commerce platforms and expanding quickly into smaller towns. With India’s electronics penetration still low—15 to 18% for flat-panel TVs, 40% for refrigerators, 20% for washing machines and less than 10% for air conditioners (ACs)—Reliance has substantial headroom for growth.
Angshuman Bhattacharya, partner and national leader for consumer products and retail at EY India, says Reliance may focus on tier two and three cities. “These markets have been a low priority for the Samsungs and LGs because they want to play in the premium segment where margins are higher. That is where Reliance may expand the market. It requires a lot of capital in terms of inventories and distribution, and Reliance has the ability and potential to do so.”
FMCG: Ball is Rolling
The FMCG push is gaining strong momentum. Reliance plans to double its distribution to three million outlets this fiscal.
Over the next three years, it looks to invest Rs. 40,000 crore to create Asia’s largest integrated food parks and has already invested Rs. 3,000 crore in manufacturing.
Isha Ambani, who spearheads Reliance’s retail and FMCG businesses, drew attention to Campa’s comeback at the company’s AGM in August: “Campa-Cola now holds double-digit market share across many states, breaking a 30-year MNC duopoly of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. Campa Energy gained two million social media followers in just 90 days.”
Her target is bold: To reach Rs. 1 lakh crore in FMCG revenue within five years and become India’s largest FMCG company with a global presence.
Market watchers say such high ambitions require high investments. Kannan Sitaram, co-founder and partner at venture capital firm Fireside Ventures, said a company like Hindustan Unilever would set aside at least `30-40 crore to launch a brand. “Advertising and marketing alone would take up more than half of that. And when you are re-launching a brand which has not been around for a long while, the spending tends to be 25 to 30% higher in the initial three to four months,” he says.
Yet, analysts believe Reliance is in the consumer brands business for the long term. Bhattacharya says whatever Reliance has learned in this short time is meaningful and serious, something nobody else has managed.
Mover and Shaker
Competitors, including Tata Consumer Products, Dabur and PepsiCo’s largest bottler in India Varun Beverages, have acknowledged the turbulence created by Reliance in the FMCG sector. But the industry hopes low penetration levels will ensure there is room for everyone.
Varun Beverages chairman Ravi Jaipuria did not mince his words in the company’s latest earnings call in October-end: “They (Reliance) have woken all of us up and we are becoming more attentive… it is a very healthy sign for the country because our per capita consumption is so low that in the next five to 10 years, this market may double or triple…there is a huge room, and we see only positives in this.”
The revival of legacy brands and aggressive push into FMCG and consumer electronics indicates that Reliance is preparing for the long haul. In this fight driven by nostalgia, competitive pricing, deep pockets and distribution muscle, the battle for shelf space has just begun.
(Published in Economic Times/Brand Equity)
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December 15, 2025
By Saumyangi Yadav, Entrepreneur India
Dec 15, 2025
India’s D2C ecosystem has grown rapidly over the past five years, but scale remains elusive. While thousands of brands have launched and many have crossed early revenue milestones, only a small fraction manage to break past INR 100 crore in annual revenue. According to a new report by DSG Consumer Partners, based on a survey of over 100 Indian D2C founders and operators, the problem is not demand or product-market fit, it is how brands attempt to scale.
The report shows that around 60–65 per cent of Indian D2C brands remain stuck in the INR 1–50 crore revenue band, with very few reaching the INR 100 crore mark. This stage marks the point where early traction exists, but growth begins to strain unit economics, teams, and operating systems.
Insights from over 100 D2C founders reveal that India’s fastest-growing brands win on fundamentals rather than speed alone. Clear product-market fit, disciplined data tracking, strong unit economics, creative velocity, and an early focus on retention consistently separate scalable brands from those that plateau. Founders also admit that performance marketing mistakes, pricing missteps, and weak creative systems slow growth far more than budget constraints. In a booming D2C landscape, capability gaps in operations, brand-building, and supply-chain depth are widening the divide between breakout brands and those stuck in the performance plateau.
Industry observers argue that this is where many brands mistake rapid online growth for sustainable scale.
As Devangshu Dutta, Founder & CEO, Third Eyesight, explains, “Scaling up online can be very rapid, but is also capital-hungry in terms of CAC. Given the intense competition, the lack of customer stickiness and the power of platforms, there is a constant churn of marketing spend which is a huge bleed for growing brands.”
CAC Inflation is The Real Constraint
One of the clearest findings from the playbook is that acquisition efficiency, rising CAC and unstable ROAS, is the single biggest blocker to growth, cited by more founders than funding or category expansion. Moreover, over 70 per cent of brands rely on Meta as their primary acquisition channel, increasing vulnerability to auction pressure and platform-driven volatility.
Dutta links this directly to the limits of a digital-only mindset. “Limited offline expansion can trap brands in narrow urban digital markets, blocking broader scale,” he said.
This over-reliance on online performance marketing often leads to growth that looks strong on dashboards but weak on cash flow.
Highlighting their report, Pooja Shirali, Vice President, DSG Consumer Partners, said, “Across over 90 consumer brands we’ve partnered with at DSGCP, one truth is clear: brands that master Meta’s ecosystem don’t just grow, they change their entire trajectory through strategic clarity and disciplined execution. The real drivers of scale have less to do with viral moments, and everything to do with the long-term fundamentals that make milestones like the first INR 100 crore predictable, not accidental.”
Why Omnichannel is Unavoidable
The report suggests that brands that scale sustainably are those that reduce overdependence on paid digital acquisition and expand their distribution footprint. However, offline expansion brings its own complexity.
Dutta stresses that omnichannel is not an optional add-on, but a strategic shift. “D2C brands must adopt an omnichannel approach, blending online with offline retail for sustainable and scalable reach. Clearly the channels work very differently and management teams have to be prepared and capitalised for the long haul to tackle acquiring customers with channel-appropriate strategies,” he adds.
This aligns with the DSGCP report’s broader insight that scale breaks down when brands fail to adapt operating models as they grow.
Even within digital channels, performance weakens over time. The playbook finds that 62 per cent of founders report creative fatigue, where repeated creatives fail to sustain ROAS despite higher spends. At the same time, 55 per cent admit to under-investing in CRM and retention, with most brands reporting repeat purchase rates of just 10–30 per cent.
Both the data and expert opinion point to a common theme: brands that cross the INR 100 crore mark are structurally different. They obsess over unit economics, processes, and capital efficiency rather than topline growth alone.
As Dutta puts it, “Scalable brands that cross the growth hump have leadership obsessed with unit economics and omnichannel execution rather than chasing vanity metrics. Cash always was and is king, especially at early stages of growth.”
He adds that execution strength matters as much as strategy. “They are able to grow and steer teams that build and replicate processes fast rather than spending time, effort and money reinventing all the time, and do so without constant CXO intervention.”
As competition intensifies and capital becomes more selective, the next generation of INR 100 crore D2C brands is likely to be defined not by speed, but by the ability to compound cash flows, institutionalise processes, and scale distribution beyond digital platforms.
Saumyangi is a Senior Correspondent at Entrepreneur India with over three years of experience in journalism. She has reported on education, social, and civic issues, and currently covers the D2C and consumer brand space.
(Published in Entrepreneur India)
