‘We want to be everywhere’: India’s Greyon targets brick-and-mortar expansion nationwide within six months

Greyon was originally founded in 1987 by Sanjay Jain. The brand was relaunched as Greyon Cosmetics LLP in 2018 by entrepreneurs Neeraj Jain and Amit Pasricha.

In October this year, the new Greyon brand was unveiled with a new line of colour cosmetics which consisted of products such as mascara, eyeliner and a range of lipsticks developed by the company’s in-house research and development team.

Chief strategy officer Pankaj Kodesia revealed in the next six months, that the company will be working to expand the brand into physical retail.

The brand is currently only available online via its official website and e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal.

However, it is aiming to enter the brick-and-mortar space within the next six months.

“We want to be everywhere, but India is a huge market, so we have to do it in phases,” ​said Kodesia.

Eventually, the company intends to take the brand overseas, Kodesia added.

“We have another team simultaneously working towards selling our products abroad through online platforms. We are actually in the process of signing with a global e-commerce platform.”​

Additionally, the firm is working to launch new products.

By early January, the company will be launching a more premium line of cosmetics, which range from USD15 to USD19.

“The inherent strength we have is that our quality of products is very good. With that and if the products are packaged well and priced correctly, we are sure the products will do very well in the market,” ​said Kodesia.

The new products are the result of the company’s research and development into products and packaging.

“This is to ensure that we are completely in-sync with what’s happening internationally so we can adapt those trends to the local market,” ​said Kodesia.

Matching international standards

The company’s aim is also to create a range of contemporary cosmetics for the modern woman that was in line with the standards and trends of the global beauty market.

Kodesia told CosmeticsDesign-Asia ​that this directive was critical as Indian beauty consumers were becoming more discerning about their cosmetic choices.

“Today, many Indian consumers are widely travelled. They travel and buy their cosmetics from international brands, so they are well aware of the global trends and they are more demanding about the products they use.”​

With Greyon, the company aims to bring consumers that same quality at a more competitive price.

Like the rest of the world, India’s colour cosmetic sales have been hit by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

According to Kodesia, sales of cosmetics have started to recover as more people start to step out of their homes again.

“The drop in cosmetics demand is only a temporary phase. More people are going out now, and when they are out of course they are going to want to wear cosmetics,” ​said Kodesia.

The sales were also spurred on in October with the Diwali season, India’s biggest festive holiday of the year.

To company tapped into this by launching a festival box containing six items.

“Indians are no different from other consumers, they like to buy things on offer. We wanted to let people try the products at a predetermined lower price – a competitive price. The idea was they could share this with their family because the aim was to get the brand accepted into the Indian household, and in time become a household brand,”​ said Kodesia.