New age beauty brand Renee Cosmetics grew at a rapid clip with an over three-fold surge in its scale during FY23. However the losses of the Ahmedabad-based company spiked 4.5X in the previous fiscal year.
Renee’s total revenue grew 3.1X to Rs 100.4 crore in FY23 from Rs 32.4 crore in FY22, according to its annual financial statements filed with the Registrar of Companies.
Renee Cosmetics is a 'cruelty-free' beauty brand offering a wide range of eye makeup, lip colors, skin serums, and highlighters. Its products are available on several e-commerce platforms including Amazon, Flipkart, and Myntra along with over 650 shop-in-shop stores across India, claims the firm.
The sale of cosmetics is the sole source of collections in FY23 for the company.
True to the category, Renee’s advertising cost accounted for 41.3% of the overall expenditure. This cost grew 3X to Rs 60.1 crore in FY23 from Rs 19.85 crore in FY22. The firm’s employee benefits, material, freight/logistics, commission, legal and professional fees pushed its total expenditure by 3.6X to Rs 145.4 crore in FY23 from Rs 39.7 crore in FY22.
Expense Breakdown
FY22
Total ₹ 39.7 Cr
FY23
Total ₹ 145.4 Cr
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Cost of materials consumed
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Employee benefits
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Marketing and Advertisement
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Freight
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Commission and Brokerage
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Legal and professional fees
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Manpower charges
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Others
Head to TheKredible to see the detailed expense breakup of Renee.
Renee’s surge in overall expense outpaced its revenue growth and its losses spiked 4.4X to Rs 32.6 crore in FY23 from Rs 7.26 crore in FY22. Its ROCE and EBITDA margin stood at -22.85% and -42.03% respectively in FY22. On a unit level, it spent Rs 1.5 to earn a rupee.
FY22-FY23
FY22 | FY23 | |
---|---|---|
EBITDA Margin | -21.15% | -42.03% |
Expense/₹ of Op Revenue | ₹1.23 | ₹1.50 |
Roce | -12.73% | -22.85% |
Renee has raised around $36 million to date and is valued at around Rs 702 crore or $87 million. According to the data intelligence platform TheKredible, Evolvence India is the largest external shareholder with 11.52% followed by Mensa Brand and Edelweiss Discovery Fund. Its co-founders Ashutosh Valani, Priyank Shah, and Aashka Goradi cumulatively command 54.49% of the company.
While the high losses are not surprising considering the high upfront costs of building a brand in the beauty category, the real challenge will be to see if the brand has drawing power. It is also critical to quickly build a following for at least one 'flagship' product, to support shelf space with retail or even help control high variable costs. 'Go big or go home' is probably truer for this category than many others, with the added proviso to cross breakeven fast. Not doing so will mean what many would consider an unacceptable level of dilution for the founders.