Beardo crosses Rs 170 Cr revenue in FY24; regains profitability

After a slowdown in FY23, Marico-owned Beardo achieved a 62.4% year-on-year growth in scale during the fiscal year ending March 2024. Moreover, the male grooming company returned to profitability in FY24.

Beardo’s revenue from operations grew to Rs 173.2 crore in the last fiscal year from Rs 106.6 crore in FY23, its annual financial statements sourced from the Registrar of Companies (RoC) show.

Beardo offers beard focused oil, comb and wax along with face wash, soaps, lotions through its own website, marketplaces and retail stores The sale of these products was the primary source of income for the firm.

For the men's grooming firm, the products' procurement comprised 40% of the overall expenditure. To the tune of scale, this cost grew 83.2% to Rs 67.5 crore in FY24 from Rs 36.8 crore in FY23.

Beardo’s advertisement and employee benefit cost remained steady at Rs 43.89 crore and Rs 12.5 crore, respectively. Meanwhile, transportation, legal, freight and other overheads took the overall expenditure up by 46.1% to Rs 168.4 crore in FY24 from Rs 115.3 crore in FY23.

See TheKredible for the detailed cost breakup.

The impressive increase in scale and controlled cost especially on advertising and employee benefits helped Beardo return to profits which stood at Rs 3.63 crore in FY24 as compared to a loss of Rs 6.1 crore in FY23. Its ROCE and EBITDA margin stood at 75.58% and 4.21%, respectively. On a unit level, the Ahmedabad-based company spent Rs 0.97 to earn a rupee in the fiscal year ending March 2024.

Beardo competes with Ustraa, The Man Company, and Bombay Shaving Company. Ustraa reported a 2.94% decline in revenue to Rs 94.02 crore, with a loss of Rs 50 crore in FY24. Bombay Shaving Company registered Rs 182 crore in revenue for FY23 and aims to achieve a topline of Rs 260-280 crore in FY24. The Man Company, which recorded Rs 115 crore in revenue for FY23, has yet to file its audited results for FY24.

The company has followed the playbook when it comes to being acquired by a much larger firm. A year of consolidation and even losses, followed by a strong resurgence as it leverages its parent firm's strengths in distribution, marketing, sourcing etc. Even a women’s line has been launched, though the firm has played it safe by sticking to the high-margin perfumes category here. Being part of a massive FMCG firm like Marico also means that Beardo can stay true to its core offering around beard grooming and men’s personal care more broadly. The canvas for expansions and growth remains high for the firm, and it seems very well placed to ride out the inevitable consolidation that seems set to take place in the D2C category per se, and the personal care categories as well. The firm remains one campaign or trending viral way from breaking way and even doubling revenues as early as FY27, if it rides its luck and the learnings from the past few years.