L'Oréal India to open a hair colour manufacturing plant in Himachal Pradesh by mid-2015

L'Oréal India, one of the leading hair care products brand is setting up a hair colour manufacturing plant at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh, according to a PTI report.

Confirming the news, Jean-Christophe Letellier, Managing Director, L'Oréal India told PTI, "We are in the process of opening a second factory in the North. It will be at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh and will be only for hair colour, for which we plan a capacity of 100 million units. The plant will be operational by the middle of next year and will cater to all its brands that sell cream."

Prior to this, the French company has a manufacturing unit at Chakan in Pune also. It enjoys 70 per cent market share in the cream hair colour-based category, estimated at Rs 700 crore and is growing at over 19 per cent in terms of value and over 60 per cent by volume.

Letellier further told PTI that the brand is eyeing a turnover of Rs 7,000 crore by 2020. He declined to comment on the investment detail of the new plant.

"We will go beyond Rs 2,000 crore this year. Our target is to be up to two or three times the market growth. During the last two years, the market itself has slowed down but we have managed to grow over two times the market, but at a slower pace than what we would expect,” Letellier told PTI.

He further added, "We believe India will gradually recover. The foundations for market growth, personal care growth are very strong and robust. We should anyway be observing this ratio of 2:3 times growth above 20 per cent every year and reach that goal by 2020."

In FY13, the total personal care mass market was estimated to be around Rs 28,730 crore, growing at over 7 per cent and L'Oreal's share was 6 per cent of it. The brand is placed at number three in the personal care category and hopes to jump a notch higher by next year.