India a growth target for Avon as plans for product launches announced

The New York-headquartered company currently has a wholly-owned subsidiary, Avon Beauty Products India, operating in the country. selling around 1500 products through a list of direct selling agents.

The beauty firm is looking to maintain a 40 percent growth rate in India this year with the launch of over 300 products across various categories, according to the country’s news agency, Press Trust of India.

Continue the growth​

“We plan to launch 327 products across various categories in the country in the current year,”​ Avon beauty Products India managing director, Ujjwal Sankar Mukhopadhyay, told PTI.

”For the last three years we have been growing at 40 per cent CAGR. We would like to maintain this healthy growth rate in the coming years.”​

The color cosmetics and skin care segments are the most likely to benefit from the new products according to the India business’ leading man. The company, which currently sells its products in around 1,200 towns and cities in the country, is also targeting to reach around 2,000 towns.

“Going ahead we would like to be present in around 2,000 places. I would not like to put a time frame for covering these areas, but this is the way forward,”​ Mukhopadhyay said.

“By 2015, we would like to cover around 93 percent of the population across the country,”​ he added.

India a key target​

Avon India has a manufacturing unit at Dehradun, which produces 85 percent of the products sold in India. The other 15 percent of the products are imported from various locations globally.

The US-based firm has more than 65 lakh representatives selling its products over 100 countries. It had posted a global turnover of more than $11 billion last year.

The announcement comes just as cosmetics giant L’Oréal revealed its focus on the India and China markets, following in the footsteps of personal care competitors Procter & Gamble and Unilever.