FMCG major Emami to acquire 30% stake in The Man Company

Kolkata-based FMCG company Emami on Thursday announced that it will acquire 30 per cent stake in Helios Lifestyle, the parent company of the male grooming brand The Man Company.

Emami is acquiring the stake in the startup at a valuation of around Rs 80-100 crore. However, the deal is under due diligence and will be concluded by the end of December 2018.

“It is a strategic investment, although Emami has the option to buy out the founding shareholders going forward and take 100% control, it has no plan to do so immediately,” Emami director Harsha V. Agarwal said talking to Mint.

The men’s personal care market is estimated to be Rs 5,000 crore. For the FMCG company, which also catered to the men’s personal care segment, the deal makes a perfect sense.

In the fiscal year ending March 2017, The Man Company reported revenue of Rs 5.6 crore, compared with Rs 1.1 crore in the previous financial year.

Post the deal, Emami will offer its own offline distribution network to scale up sales of the more premium products from The Man Company line.

Founded in 2013 by Hitesh Dhingra, Rohit Chawla, Parvesh Bareja and Bhisham Bhateja, The Man Company has received investments from various angel investors over the past four years. However, When Emami concludes the acquisition of 30 per cent of the company’s shares, it will become the single largest shareholder

There are others startups in men’s grooming segment such as Bombay Shaving Company, Ustraa and LetsShave, which are offering its product to the market, which is still largely untapped.

Among these startups many have raised investments as well. Last year, Bombay Shaving Company raised Rs 4 crore in seed funding.

Earlier this year, Marico Ltd, the maker of Parachute hair oil and Saffola cooking oil, entered the male grooming market by picking up a stake in Zed Lifestyle Pvt Ltd, which owns Beardo.