Sephora eyes double digit growth fuelled by private labels, to open in Hyderabad and Kolkata

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Sep 17, 2018

Sephora has selected Hyderabad and Kolkata and several northern cities as the next locations it will open stores in as the beauty business aims to foster double digit growth with a focus on private labels.

As India’s beauty market goes from strength to strength, Sephora is looking to expand in all of the country’s key markets. The brand has between six and eight store openings planned for the remainder of the calendar year.

“On the cards are stores in Hyderabad and Kolkata,” Sephora India’s CEO Vivek Bali told Indiaretailing. “We will be expanding aggressively in the North. We have already launched a store in Chandigarh and soon we will be entering Amritsar. We are also looking at Jaipur, we will be looking at going into Lucknow and Indore also.”

The brand has found that, although metros make up 60 percent of sales, 40 percent of sales come from Tier 2 and 3 cities. The brand is therefore looking to enter both metros and non-metros. Sephora will continue to open in malls as opposed to on high streets. According to Bali, “all beauty stores require a good mix of people, a mix which is only possible in a mall.”

Bali reported that Sephora’s private labels make up around 55 percent of sales in India. “For this fiscal-end, we are looking at a very strong double-digit growth in terms of revenue and same-store sales growth, which we have been delivering consistently over the last two years,” said Bali. Private labels offer wider profit margins and are also attractive to consumers as they are often priced more cheaply than other brands.