As consumers trade up to higher-value products, India’s consumer packaged goods companies are beginning to see gains from their push into premium personal care and new-age categories.
Premium portfolios, from specialized haircare and skincare to digital-first grooming products, are growing faster than mass segments, helping support margins at a time when demand across the broader industry remains uneven, executives said.
At Parachute and Livon maker Marico Ltd, the premium personal care portfolio grew in double digits in 2025-26 and is expected to end the year at an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of over ₹350 crore, its managing director and chief executive Saugata Gupta said during the December-quarter earnings call.
Gupta said the company’s broader digital-first portfolio, which includes specialized and online-led brands, is also scaling rapidly and is expected to exit 2025-26 with an ARR exceeding ₹1,000 crore.
Premiumization has also played a key role in its core hair oil business. Gupta said the value-added hair oils category delivered another strong quarter with market share reaching an all-time high of nearly 30%, reflecting “considerable progress towards premiumization of the mix”.
Marico’s group chief financial officer, Pawan Agrawal, said this shift towards higher-value products has also supported profitability. “Value-added hair oil has better margins,” he said, noting that the category helped the company deliver resilient profit growth despite inflation in raw materials such as copra.
Dabur India Ltd remains focused on expanding its premium hair care offerings. “We remain focused on premiumization and expansion into new-age offerings in both hair oils and shampoo,” its CEO Mohit Malhotra said during the company’s December-quarter earnings call.
Malhotra added the company’s premium variants in the Chyawanprash category, such as Gur Chyawanprash and Ratnaprash, are growing significantly faster than the base product.
“The higher margin portfolio has done significantly better… as the premium portfolio should inch up, margins should be a little bit better compared to last year,” he said.
At Emami Ltd, management said their innovation-led premiumization strategy is gaining traction among younger consumers. “Our strategy of purposeful innovation and premiumization continues to gain traction,” vice chairman Mohan Goenka said, adding that the company’s digital-first brands The Man Company and Brillare delivered growth of 31%.
“These new-age brands are firing, and we expect higher growth coming in from there,” Goenka said.
The push is evident across various segments, from grooming and home care to packaged foods.
At Hindustan Unilever Ltd, CEO Priya Nair said premium and digital-first brands have become a core part of the company’s growth strategy.
“Masstige and within that D2C is a critical part of our fewer, bigger bets agenda, and we are scaling our presence in this segment with speed and intent,” Nair said, adding its brands Minimalist and OZiva together have built an annual run rate business of about ₹1,100 crore.
Meanwhile, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd said it is seeing strong demand in premium fragrance formats such as eau de parfum (EDP). “The market has upgraded from deodorants to EDPs,” its managing director and CEO, Sudhir Sitapati, said.
A structural shift
The surge in demand for premium personal care products, aided in part by the rise of quick commerce, is also prompting newer entrants to move beyond mass offerings.
Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd’s fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) arm, Reliance Consumer Products Ltd, which has so far focused largely on acquiring and reviving legacy regional brands, recently acquired direct-to-consumer (D2C) beauty and personal-care brand Pahadi Local on 9 March.
On 3 March, Dabur also acquired a majority stake in premium Ayurvedic skincare brand Ras Luxury Oils, marking its first acquisition of a direct-to-consumer brand under its ₹500-crore Dabur Venture Fund, which invests in emerging consumer brands.
Experts say the premiumization trend in personal care is structural rather than a short-term shift, as India’s beauty and personal-care market, currently valued at about $40 billion, is expected to expand to $100-120 billion by 2030, making it one of the fastest-growing consumer segments globally, according to a 2026 report by consulting firm RedSeer Strategy Consultants.
“A lot of it is driven by quick commerce,” said Anand Ramanathan, partner and consumer industry leader for South Asia at professional services firm Deloitte. Premium products are being adopted not only by affluent consumers but also by younger buyers who are experimenting with specialized formulations and niche brands.
Online channels are also reshaping how consumers discover and purchase beauty products. E-commerce’s share of the country’s beauty and personal care market has grown from about 8% in 2029-20 to nearly 20% in 2024-25 and is expected to account for more than a third of category spending by 2030, according to Redseer.
Ramanathan said the consumer market is gradually evolving into a “barbell” structure, with strong growth at both the premium and value ends. “You have value on one side and premium on the other.”
He added that categories such as specialized treatments, targeted skincare, haircare formulations, and natural products are emerging as key growth drivers as consumers become more willing to pay for specialized solutions.
Scope for growth
However, the country still has relatively few scaled brands. Only around 20 brands in the sector generate more than ₹1,500 crore in annual revenue, according to Redseer.
This is partly because the sector has historically been dominated by small purchases made in local stores, price-sensitive consumers, and traditional remedies, making it harder for brands to scale nationally. That also leaves significant headroom for growth, which large FMCG companies are now trying to capture by expanding premium portfolios and acquiring niche digital-first brands.
