Mother Sparsh is aiming to grow its business exponentially over the next five years, as a result of the proposed investment by salt-to-cigarette conglomerate ITC Ltd. The company, which had an annual sales of Rs 15 crore in FY 2021, has set an ambitious target of reaching 300 crore annual sales by the year 2026.
A 16 per cent stake in the Chandigarh-based premium Ayurvedic personal care company has been announced recently by Kolkata-based ITC, at a valuation of Rs 125 crore. The conglomerate, which is rapidly expanding its presence in the fast moving consumer goods space, is picking up the stake to grow its presence in the direct-to- consumer D 2 C space. According to Sameer Satpathy, Chief Executive of Personal Care Products Business at ITC, the deal will help grow ITC s play both in the naturals and ayurvedic segment, as well as in the D 2 C channel Himanshu Gandhi, who co-founded Mother Sparsh with his wife Rishu in 2016, and said that the investment from ITC will boost its fortunes in the coming years. It will help in expanding the brands presence in the country's smaller towns, as well as investing the money into new product development and innovations.
It sells its products through the in-house e-commerce portal and the likes of Flipkart and Amazon, primarily to metro city customers. Its offline sales are merely 5 -- 7 per cent. With ITC s distribution might behind it, Mother Sparsh has the potential to grow faster.
In FY 2022, the company is expected to grow its top-line by 167 per cent to Rs 40 crore, according to Gandhi. He is looking to reach a 100 crore mark by the end of next financial year.
This is the first time in its five years journey that the company has received investment from a professional group. The business was funded by the two co-founders and their personal contacts since its inception. Mother Sparsh stayed away from television advertising because it would have been too costly for the newly founded venture to keep its costs in check. Gandhi relied on digital media and word-of- mouth publicity. There is an army of some 10,000 social media influencers, apart from a few Bollywood celebrities like Tisca Chopra and Neena Gupta.
The strategy is simple: to impress on new mothers with its quality and to keep the quality and supply intact. He says acquiring a customer once means a lifelong attachment, unlike other personal care categories. Parents, especially mothers, do not switch brands once they are hooked to a brand and issued by its quality.