“We are a house of brands creating brands and products to serve millennial concerns while serving a greater purpose.”
Varun Alagh (Co-Founder & CEO, Mamaearth)
The secret to success is constancy to purpose. “The vision was always to create a purpose-driven brand for millennials that serves a millennial problem through our product and initiative,” asserts Varun who believes that purpose is above anything else. Driven by purpose and passion, Varun Alagh along with his partner Ghazal Alagh founded Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. in 2016.
Prior to establishing today’s highly acclaimed company in 2016, he served at many world-renowned FMCG companies in different sales and marketing roles. He started his career with Hindustan Unilever, a consumer goods company, and has been listed amongst the top managers for two years consistently in the company. His curiosity to explore more into the world of marketing took him to Diageo Plc where he managed World’s No1 spirits brand Smirnoff for India. Thereafter, he worked at Coca-Cola and managed consumer marketing for Coca-Cola across India and southwest Asian countries.
Varun holds a Masters degree in Finance and Marketing from XLRI, Jamshedpur, and Bachelors in Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering (DCE).
As Varun believes in always exploring more about businesses and sharpening the needed skills, attitudes, and values through practical education, he worked with companies like Colgate Palmolive, Havells Electric, Madura Garments, Maruti & Nokia under internships & live projects during his education.
The creation of a babycare product startup by the power couple has today become everyone’s favorite personal care brand. Varun has a lot to mention about his business venture and his journey of becoming a CEO:
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Give us a glimpse of yourself and walk us through your journey on becoming a CEO.
The objective was never to become a CEO. The journey started with a personal experience. When Ghazal and I had our first child, we started looking for chemical-free products for our baby, but we could not find options that were easily available in India. We mostly ended up importing baby care products or asking friends to bring them, which was both expensive and time-consuming. Identifying this gap, we decided to create Mamaearth and venture into ‘Toxin-free’ baby care products. While we started as a brand for baby care products, we soon realized that most millennials were looking for safe and toxin-free products for themselves too. Hence, we diversified into personal care products for adults as well.
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Briefly describe your company and the products or services you are offering.
Honasa Consumer Pvt Limited (HCPL), is a digital-first consumer brands company creating the FMCG conglomerate of the future. A company built on the values of Honesty, Natural ingredients, and Safe care, HCPL caters to the needs of millennial consumers through innovative products, evolved propositions, direct-to-consumer marketing, and e-commerce fulfillment. Currently catering to over 1000 cities in India with brands like Mamaearth, The Derma Co. & Aqualogica, HCPL is building an ecosystem that helps benefit the consumers and community at large.
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Elaborate on the offerings of your company. What makes its services/products worth the investment?
Mamaearth is a purpose-driven toxin-free brand with products made using natural ingredients. Consumers connect with us through our purpose and buy into our philosophy while buying our products. This is what distinguishes us from other brands in the market.
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How important it is to keep an eye on one’s competitors? How do you assess and manage the competition around your company?
For us, the consumer is at the center of our business, and being a D2C brand, we are constantly connected with them. We speak to our consumers at constant intervals, and this helps us understand the consumer sentiments and requirements along with feedback on the product and how to better it. Since we get first-hand feedback, our feedback-driven innovation cycle is faster and stronger.
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Shed light on the clientele of your firm. How do you develop strong & positive client relationships?
We are a house of brands creating brands and products to serve millennial concerns while serving a greater purpose. We strongly feel that millennials have become conscious of the choices they make for themselves and the environment, and hence they buy into our process before the product.
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Shed light on the mission of the company. What is its long-term strategic vision?
When the company was established, the vision was always to create a purpose-driven brand for millennials that serves a millennial problem through our product and initiative.
I want to see Honasa Consumer Pvt Limited becoming a billion-dollar value House of brands in the next 5 years.
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Mention the awards and milestones received by you so far.
- The Times of India Most Valued Mother & Child Brands 2020- Mamaearth
- Nielsen BASES Breakthrough Innovations 2020 – India Winners- Mamaearth
- The Economic Times Best Brands 2019 – Mamaearth
- Varun Alagh-ET 40Under40
Providing the entire nation with natural, toxic-free, and dermatologically tested personal care products since 2016, Mamaearth has successfully established itself as a trustworthy company in the organic products industry. The power couple–Varun and Ghazal Alagh envisions a much brighter future for their company in the next 5 years.
