We are now trying to reinvent Dabur as Dabur 2.0: CEO Mohit Malhotra

Home-grown FMCG major Dabur India has undertaken a repackaging exercise for a host of its brands as it looks to tap into a younger user base, especially when consumers are more circumspect about their buying choices amid high inflation.

“The idea is to make a pack more consumer-friendly with ergonomically better designs that are easier to hold and use,”  Mohit Malhotra, chief executive officer, Dabur India, told Business Standard in an interaction.

The brands being repackaged include the Rs 1,000 crore – Rs 1,500 crore Dabur Amla hair oil and Vatika shampoo in the home and personal care category. The Rs 1,500-crore Real fruit juice in the food and beverage category has also gone through repackaging.  

The company is planning to grow its home and personal care  segment in double digits, targeting a revenue of Rs 7,000 crore in the medium term up from Rs 3,845 crore as of FY 2023. The company also has ambitious growth plans for the food and beverage category, which clocked a revenue of 1,724 crore in the last financial year.

On making the packs more contemporary, Malhotra said that India is progressing as a nation, becoming fitter, better groomed, and is spending more money on products. ‘’When it comes to changing trends, our packaging looked very old and stale. We are now trying to reinvent Dabur as Dabur 2.0,” he added.

“We want to make the company more relatable and relevant to the Gen-Z and millennials. We are always relevant to people over the age of 40, but we need to be relevant now also to the 25+ age group, which is becoming aspirational,” he added.  

This age group, he said, is getting exposed to the West through digital media and homegrown brands need to stay in tune with that.

The fresh packaging is also in line with the company’s ESG (enviornmental, social and governance) goals, Malhotra said.

“The company might have felt a need to dilute their more traditional image with a more modern approach to become more relevant to the global Indian. The idea is to not just survive, but thrive in a more competitive market,” said Samit Sinha, founder Alchemist Brand Consulting.

In their report post the company’s analyst meeting earlier this month, analysts at ICICI Securities said, “In our view, contemporizing the portfolio would be an easier journey while changing brand perception in a consumer’s mind would be a much longer journey.”

The company is also looking at premiumisation as a way of gaining a larger market share. This includes building on its already existing brands and turning them into full-range platforms with premium offerings.

So, the Vatika shampoo has new premium offerings in onion and olive. The company also forayed into the tea market with premium loose tea brand Dabur Vedic tea.  

More FMCG giants are increasingly looking at premiumisation as a way of tapping into a newer customer base.

PepsiCo Foods has taken forward its time-tested Kurkure brand with the recent launch of Chaat Fills, a centre-filled savoury snack with chaat flavours, in a more premium-looking matte packaging.

Nestle India is also focussing on adding more premium products to its portfolio, starting with its Kitkat range of chocolates. “As part of our part of premiumisation and upgradation, we are working on 30-35 projects and at least 5 to 10 of these will be coming through in the next couple of quarters,” Suresh Narayanan, chairman and managing director of Nestle India, had said at a press conference earlier this year.