Home-grown brand Colorbar Cosmetics is the fastest growing cosmetic brand in the country. With 80 company owned stores and more than 1,000 plus multi-brand outlets across the country, Rs 350 crore giant today is the third largest player in the Indian beauty cosmetics market which is valued at estimated US $2,597 million and is the second largest consumer market in the world.
Introduced to fill in the huge gap in home-grown brands, Colorbar was created with an aim to compete with the large well established giants and strongly entrenched itself in the ‘Masstige’ segment of the industry.
Over the years, with the high set of quality standards that Samir Modi, Founder and Managing Director, Colorbar Cosmetics refused to compromise with, the brand offers the quality equivalent to those offered by the top of the line world makeup brands, such as global leaders Mac and Bobbi Brown.
Each of the Colorbar products are created and developed in the best facilities and R&D centers in the world. Colorbar has access to get the same superior formulations from global vendors but he is a strong disrupting force who provides the high end products at highly accessible price points. A strong element is that Colorbar is cruelty free. The brand future expansion plans include focus on global markets.
Elaborating on the same, Modi says, “Globally, we have small presence in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. From early next year onwards, we will be expanding our international presence in Asia Pacific and Europe. We will be starting with Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, China, entire EU, Russia and Middle-East. We aim to be a global player.”
He adds, “Every country we won’t be opening our own stores rather we will be opting for online presence in many countries.”
Brand Revamp
The brand, which has been growing 48 percent year-on-year, is undergoing a logo change, packaging change and look and feel change. Changes are expected to be done completely by the end of this year.
According to Modi, “The brand is undergoing a transformation as I do not believe in being static. I believe only in one philosophy that change is the only constant. And as we are planning to enter to the global market, we want to be at par with the international brands. We want the brand to look more premium but without increasing the prices. We want to be the starting step of the luxury.”
“From silver packaging, we are going to a rose gold, copperish packaging and metallic packaging. Stores are going to look more flamboyant now. We are doing a lot of bespoke in the new stores. Customers will be able to make their lipstick or nail-paint and will be able to get their names and faces on the products,” he adds.
Going forward, the average store size will range from 400-500 sq.ft. This year, the brand is planning to open 20 more brick-and-mortar outlets.
The cosmetic brand, which launches 250 plus SKUs every year, is all set to re-launch the website by the end of September.
“Currently, online contributes 15 percent to the overall revenue and with the launch of our own portal, Colobar is aiming 20 percent revenue to come from online,” states Modi.
Apart from this, Colobar is also entering the men’s category in next two months. The brand will be introducing skincare and beard products for men.
“By the end of this fiscal, the brand is aiming to clock Rs 550 crore revenue and eyes to be Rs 1,000 crore brand by 2020-21,” concludes Modi.