Sweet deal: Vellvette Lifestyle aims to help ENN Beauty capture India’s tier two and three cities

Vellvette Lifestyle, the parent company of the highly successful direct-to-consumer beauty brand SUGAR Cosmetics, said it would help strengthen ENN Beauty’s online presence and tap into the lucrative millennial and Gen Z demographics.

“ENN Beauty has been on our radar for a while because of the exceptional work that it has done in terms of product curation and innovation. With this new association, we plan to take the brand to a new high and make them an Indian household favourite,” said​ Vineeta Singh, co-founder and CEO of Vellvette Lifestyle.

According to a report from RedSeer, India’s beauty market was valued at U$16bn in 2020 and it is expected to grow at a rate of 12% per annum to U$28bn by 2025.

“Despite the onset of the pandemic, the Indian beauty industry has been growing remarkably… ENN Beauty was the perfect fit [for Vellvette] to enter the skin care category. We expect it to grow exponentially over the next 12 to 24 months,” ​said Singh.

The company is aiming to hit INR100Cr (U$13m) in annual revenue in the next 12 to 18 months.

Accessible and affordable

To hit this target, one of the companies’ priorities was to make ENN Beauty more accessible to beauty consumers in India’s tier two and three cities.

“The team will look at re-strategising the brand product’s average selling point to make it more accessible and desirable to women from tier two and tier three markets,”​ said Singh.

ENN Beauty founder Nandeeta Manchanda added that the brand was reworking its product development as well.

“We will be playing with a lot of basic ingredients that people are already aware of and create products that do not exist in the market. For example, [we will be launching] the ghee-based lip balm at an affordable price in tier two and three cities. The whole play is going to be around ingredients by making it fun yet accessible at an affordable price.”​

The brand will also be able to leverage Vellvette Lifestyle’s digital audience of over 50 million consumers, as well as its strong offline retail presence.

The company is planning to expand its retail footprint further and is targeting to have over 100 outlets by the next financial year.

This deal with ENN Beauty was Vellvette Lifestyle’s first investment in another beauty brand and could be its only one for a while.

More acquisitions for Vellvette Lifestyle?​

Singh told us that the firm was not actively looking for new acquisitions and that the investment in ENN Beauty was made “purely from the heart”.​

“It happened organically because of the massive overlap of consumers who wanted authentic brands that were making natural products for skin and hair, as well as a big connection with the founder and a great appreciation for the work she has done with building the brand.”​