Natural to holistic: India’s Lotus Herbals eyes opportunities in Ayurveda space

Lotus Herbals is an India-based cosmetics manufacturer specialising in natural skin care, hair care and colour cosmetic products.

The company operates in 700 cities across India and 16 countries overseas and claims to be one of the leading cosmetic companies in India.

Since its founding in 1993, the company has continued to see the demand for natural beauty products explode in the market.

In 2018, it moved into the organic beauty space with the brand Ikkai to target younger consumers like millennials.

Today, the company is observing a shift in the natural and organic beauty space as consumers’ perception of beauty have become more holistic, combining factors such as food and wellness.

“There is a large section of consumers adopting a more holistic lifestyle and beauty is part of that approach or how they want to live complete lives,”​ said Nitin Passi, joint managing director of Lotus Herbals.

As such, the company has seen a renewed interest in practices that underline ‘whole-body’ healing, such as Ayurveda, India’s traditional healing system.

“Ayurveda is a 5,000-year-old holistic science which is [considered] beneficial to these consumers as the paradigm shifts,” ​said Passi.

Lotus Herbals acquires Ayurveda beauty brand

As part of the company’s medium to long-term growth strategy, it has been pursuing brand acquisitions to accelerate its growth inorganically.

The interest in Ayurveda has prompted the company to consider acquiring a cosmetic brand with Ayurvedic roots.

“We have been scanning the market for a premium certified organic Ayurvedic brand that resonates with modern consumers,” ​said Passi.

This led to the company’s buy out of India-based Vedicare Ayurveda, the company that owns the wellness and beauty brand SoulTree to enter the premium Ayurvedic beauty and wellness space.

According to SoulTree, it was the first brand in India to be recognised by European certifications such as the BDIH Certified Natural Cosmetics, a standard by the German Association of Industries and Trading Firms.

“SoulTree is a very young brand that has tremendous opportunities in the holistic and clean beauty space. It’s a fantastic brand with a terrific soul which is built on the pillars of ethical beauty, sustainability, Ayurveda and prestigious international organic certifications,”​ said Passi.

Despite the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the company is confident in the growth of SoulTree.

Passi told CosmeticsDesign-Asia​ that the brand has been recovering well from the impact thanks to sales of personal care products like shampoo.

“During the total lockdown in India SoulTree’s business suffered like everyone else’s, but the recovery has been as per expectations. The Ayurvedic hair cleansing and personal care products along with Ayurvedic eye make-up, such as kajals have been doing well.”​

Aside from India, SoulTree has a presence in countries such as France, Germany, Switzerland, UK, Spain, Bulgaria, Ukraine, South Africa, Australia and Japan.

Passi said the company would explore an expansion of SoulTree both at home and overseas. In particular, it planned to expand to markets like the US which has yet to be tapped by the brand.

“With SoulTree our focus shall be both Indian as well as international markets. We believe the North American market has tremendous potential. We will be exploring all relevant channels of distribution, geographies as well as introduce innovative Ayurvedic products to strengthen the brand.”​

In the immediate future, the company plans to increase the brand awareness of SoulTree and make it “more visible, engaging and innovative,” ​said Passi.

“We shall be utilising digital tools to reach out to our potential consumers to provide them the SoulTree experience through education, live engagements with help from beauty and wellness experts, and occasion-led interactions.”​