In conversation with Sandeep Jain, Director, Vega, on the action unfolding at the company and its mission to increasingly make in India, even as it expands to more categories. Edited excerpts:
Tell us about the genesis of the brand and its evolution.
Vega is more than two decades old as a brand and still we are young. We had a very humble beginning with only one product category which was makeup brushes. That was prior to 2000.
I am a second generation entrepreneur. We started with a nearly 3,000 sq. ft. place in a basement. Slowly, we started identifying the gaps for other products in the Indian market, what consumers need. Then, we started adding different categories such as hair brushes, combs, manicure and pedicure products. By 2006-2007, we had more than 200 SKUs in our portfolio.
When I joined the business around 2006, I was young and wanted to take the brand to the next level. We identified more categories to enter and built our distribution network. We also added entire product categories, revamped the packaging, added more manpower, developed more team members and then we launched the personal care appliances. This was nine to 10 years back. Today, we are the number one company in terms of beauty care accessories and we are the number two brand in personal care appliances.
Recently, a research was done by AZ Research and we were recognised as the number one hair brush brand in India and the number one hair styler brand in India.
What is the current scale of the business and how has the foray into the professional segment worked?
By the end of this year, we would be having more than 3,00,000 sq. ft. of space. We have more than 1,000 employees. We are omnichannel and we are present in more than 40,000 retail outlets, directly or indirectly. We are present in most of the modern trade formats, regional and international even. We are present on the major players in the ecommerce segment. Today, I am proud to say that Vega is a recognised brand and consumers love our brand, they know our brand. We can say that in many households in India, one or the other product of Vega is used – it can be a nail cutter, hair brush or a hair comb.
We diversified into the professional segment last year. We launched personal care appliances for professionals; we have more than 150 SKUs in the professional range. Our thrust is not about selling the product, our thrust is more about education because we feel that in India there are many many aspiring stylists who are still not aware of international giants or they need more understanding on different types of styling. We have an educational director in-house. We have created an education team in-house. We conduct various workshops, seminars and in-house salon training. That has given us an edge over other brands.
In select cities, we have on-site services for customers where if they are facing any problem with the product, our technician goes and resolves it. In a short span of time, I would say we have become a leading brand in this category as well.
When we started, we were primarily outsourcing products from different South Asian countries but slowly with the vision of our honourable Prime Minister, we are now working towards ‘Make in India’. During Covid, we started manufacturing personal care appliances in India.
How has that taken off? How much of what you sell is made in India now?
Prior to 2020, our made-in-India contribution to revenue was negligible, but today more than 40 pc of our revenue is coming from made-in-India products. Our vision is that in the next three to five years, we want to grow this and take it to minimum 75 pc. The reason is why I said 75 pc and not 100 pc is because that will take more time. Manufacturing every SKU is very difficult for us when you don’t have volumes. But we are developing, we are starting small. Last year, we started manufacturing small hair brushes. In the next three to five years, we want to manufacture over 90 pc plus of our hair brushes in India. In certain categories we are aiming higher and in certain others we are looking to see how we can be beyond 75 pc.
What are the most recent launches?
We have catered to millions of consumers who have used our products. We have touched different age groups and stages of life. We felt that we are still missing out the little ones. So now we have ventured into Vega Baby & Mom, as recently as a few days back. We have come out with a very unique product line. We have come out with Tritan bottles. The raw material is made in the USA but the final product is made in India. The product is scratch-free.
Tell us about the product portfolio and top-selling products.
We have two categories: personal care appliances and beauty care accessories. In beauty care accessories, we have makeup brushes, hair brushes, combs, manicure tools such as nail cutters, filers and also pedicure tools, face care tools and bath care accessories like loofah and sponges.
The professional segment is bifurcated into men and women. For women, we have hair dryers, hair straighteners, curlers, wavers. For men, we have trimmers, primarily.
Different categories and sub-categories have different top-selling products. Smart One trimmer is one of our top-selling products which we launched last year. Then there is the 3-in-1 Style trimmer. Certain hair dryers are bestsellers as are certain hair brushes. Styling is one of the top-selling spaces.
In the professional category too, styling products are among top-sellers for us. Styling means your hair straighteners and curlers. And then there are clippers for men.
What is the share of online and offline sales?
Over the years, it has been changing. We are an omnichannel brand and prior to Covid, ecommerce was in single digits. During Covid and post Covid, we see a shift.
Currently the majority, the backbone for us, is still general trade and modern trade. The online segment is approximately 30 to 35 pc. But again it depends from category to category. Personal care appliances would have a higher share of ecommerce whereas beauty care accessories would have a relatively lower share. On average, 65 pc would be from offline.
We don’t promote our D2C website that much. We are focused primarily on ecommerce and offline sales.
How is Vega positioned in the market?
Consumers have that trust with the Vega brand and like I mentioned, there is a lot of R&D we work on. We have a state-of-the-art facility in our lab in the NCR region where we do a lot of testing and come up with innovative products. Consumers know that and they are confident that Vega has been in existence since many years and they have been associated with Vega since many years. We always look to get something new into the market.
Just to give you an example, the 3-in-1 Styler is a straightener, curler and a clipper. Our smart trimmer, again, is something different. It will recognise the last setting that you used and you can start using it from there. No one has that in the industry. Next week we are coming up with a straightening brush which is unique – something no other brand is offering.
We also ensure that we have a lot of discussions with our consumers. It is not like we come up with a product and launch it. We have a lot of testing and discussion to know what consumers are looking for.
Tell us about the marketing approach.
It again starts from in-house testing and then it goes to consumers. In today’s time, our focus has been on the digital world. Rohit Sharma and Ananya Pandey are our brand ambassadors and they go very well with our consumers and our TG. We have different strategies and digital and ecommerce are always on. We promote a lot of videos. If we are offering something new to the consumers, many times the consumers are not aware what the product is and how to use it. To ensure that, we have an in-house studio where we make videos with certain professionals, models or the in-house team to show the consumer the benefit of the product and how to use it.
We have tie-ups with different influencers and we do various ATL and BTL activities. We have TV campaigns, we advertised this year on IPL. Hopefully, we are working on the World Cup as well for this year. At the retail level, we do a lot of demo activities for modern trade. We recently did a hairstyling studio activity with various retailers in different cities. A consumer comes and does the styling, they see the product. So, education plays a very vital role here.
What are the future plans for Vega?
If you would have spoken to me one week back, I would have mentioned Vega Baby & Mom. That’s an area where we will be focusing. We are working to manufacture more Made in India products. Then, focusing more on education for aspiring Indian stylists to take it to a pan-india level.
One important category we are focusing on is the oral category that we would be venturing into. We will be launching electric toothbrushes and tongue cleaners.
MN4U SYNDICATE
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