Reckitt Benckiser leads Rs 45 crore investment in Bombay Shaving Co

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jan 28, 2021

Reckitt Benckiser is leading a Rs 45 crore ($6.77 million) strategic investment into personal care brand Bombay Shaving Company, which will use the funds to expand its offline business.

 
British business Reckitt Benckiser’s investment in Bombay Shaving Co sees the business tap into the rising youth-oriented personal care space in India. The brand currently gets around 75% of its total sales from online channels. By using this new investment to expand its offline presence, Bombay Shaving Co aims to increase offline sales in terms of total sales. 
 
“Through Reckitt, we get an understanding of optics, cities and consumer profile,” said Bombay Shaving Co’s parent entity Visage Lines’ founder and CEO, Shantanu Deshpande, TNN reported.

“This is hugely valuable for us. We are now focusing significantly on offline distribution. We will work with their sales team and figure out off-take in different cities directly. Apart from that, we also get R&D [research and development] insights.” 
 
“We are in a category which needs to be where the consumer is [online or offline],” said Deshpande. “We are at 12,000 stores and plan to get to 50,000 stores in 30 cities by the end of this year.” 
 
As part of the deal, Reckitt Benckiser’s eRB senior vice president Arjun Purkayastha will join the board of Visage Lines, which runs Bombay Shaving Co. Colgate-Palmolive already has a board seat at the business.