Beardo, TMC and Ustraa: Men’s grooming space in FY22

Even as male-focused grooming brands— Beardo, The Man Company and Ustraa—all bounced back in FY22 with noticeable growth, none managed to breach the Rs 100 crore revenue mark.

To understand the numbers of these three leading direct to consumer grooming brands, Fintrackr sifted through their annual financial statements. Marico-owned Beardo remained at the top with a growth of around 50% in its collection amounting to Rs 95 crore. It’s also the only profitable company in the segment in FY22.

Gurugram-based The Man Company came in second place in terms of scale with a revenue of Rs 73.61 crore. Significantly, it had outnumbered the other two on growth metrics in FY22.

Happily Unmarried owned Ustraa managed a 70% surge in scale and its topline stood at Rs 65.87 crore during the last fiscal year.

Unsurprisingly, all three companies spent the highest amounts on advertising and marketing. Beardo spent around 42% of its overall cost on advertising which grew 84% to Rs 40.55 crore in FY22.

The Man Company (TMC) and Ustraa spent 26% and 28% of their total burn on advertising. This cost shot up 2.8X and 2.6X to Rs 26.85 crore and Rs 28.35 crore respectively for the two in FY22.

The cost of materials was the next major cost element for the three companies. Beardo spent Rs 29.64 crore on the cost of materials in FY22 while Ustraa and The Man Company spent Rs 21.34 crore and Rs 31.27 crore respectively.

When it comes to bottomline, Beardo achieved profitability and the firm booked a profit of Rs 75 lakh in FY22 as compared to a loss of Rs 5.29 crore in FY21. Ustraa and The Man Company have a long way to go as far as profit is concerned with their losses widening to Rs 27.91 crore and Rs 30.88 crore respectively during FY22.

While the obvious inference here is to ascribe most of Beardo’s success to the Marico influence on its sales and distribution, the fact is that for all the higher volumes, expenses on marketing are high, and net profit negligible. For Ustraa and The Man Company, it is clearly the pressure of operating in a market that is becoming hyper competitive, and distribution is king for now.

The good news is all three enjoy strong teams behind them, and throwing in the towel will not be an option anymore, after coming this far.  While The Man Company seems to have gone for a broader market with lower priced SKUs, Beardo and Ustraa are both fighting for the relatively premium end of the market. Thus, even as Beardo hopes to build on its strong association with hair into something approaching a blockbuster product which can deliver, say, Rs 50 crore annually, for The Man Company, the game might be all about cracking distribution. It has already tried ‘innovations’ like a Rs 99 store to acquire users faster, but much like Ustraa, the challenge will be repeat purchases.

All three have been expanding their product portfolios but it is clearly time to demonstrate some real grip over the market with a clear leader or a flagship product that has the numbers to back it.