Reliance Retail's beauty platform, Tira, has announced the expansion of its' Own Brands' portfolio - launching 'Akind', a skincare brand co-founded by Mira Kapoor (wife of actor Shahid Kapoor). Considering Reliance's brand launches and acquisitions, this may not seem like a very significant development.

Akind's launch comes weeks after it established an exclusive omnichannel partnership with Bollywood star Deepika Padukone's skincare brand, 82 ° E Tiara Beauty.

Tyra's main challenge is Nykaa.Nykaa now leads India's $20 billion beauty and personal care (BPC) market.Nykaa brought Rihanna's Fenty Beauty to the country in March.Prior to this, in 2022, Nykaa had become the exclusive partner for the launch in India of Priyanka Chopra's hair care brand, Anomaly, which is also a globally retailed brand.Fenty Beauty is also the most searched beauty brand online and is available in 150 countries.

Apart from them, actors in Hollywood and Bollywood, global music stars, athletes, models and makeup influencers have all turned to the field of beauty and personal care in the last 5-7 years. There are celebrity brands in multiple product categories, including cosmetics, hair care, skin care, face care, and fragrances.

According to Bloomberg Intelligence, there are 50 + celebrity-owned beauty brands, most of which were launched between 2020 and 2023, but about 6-8 are actually on the verge of collapse, while the rest are either on the verge of bankruptcy or being taken over by large corporations like Unileve.

At the same time, the trend is just beginning in India, as opposed to the larger markets of the US, Japan and South Korea.

According to brand experts, the turning point came in late 2019 with the introduction of Katrina Kaif's' Kay Beauty 'in Nykaa.Today, the brand has crossed Rs 150 crore in gross merchandise volume (GMV) as per analyst estimates, and is considered a significant success story in the celebrity-owned BPC segment.

In the fashion and apparel segment, Being Human (owned by Salman Khan) and HRX (owned by Hrithik Roshan) saw strong brand recall. Alia Bhatt, who was acquired by Reliance last year, has an ed-a-mamma. But in terms of beauty, Katrina's Kay was the first brand to have a strong valuation and recall, according to an equity analyst track.

It is a hyper-competitive sector and "success depends on product quality and innovation," he says. "If there is goodness and diversity in it, scalability will happen and lead to new heights in GMV. Otherwise, the tendency will gradually decrease. "

Behind this trend of celebrities

Consumer intelligence firm NielsenIQ estimates that global celeb-owned beauty brands generated annual sales of more than $1 billion for the first time in 2023, registering a 58% growth over the previous year, outpacing the 11% growth in the general market. While many of these brands have run into stagnation or financial problems, this once again confirms that the trend is far from over.

According to NielsenIQ's Anna Mayo, who leads the beauty and personal care practice at the market research firm, 2024 will be the year when winners start to break away from the unmarked.

Almost all the top female actors of Bollywood (and some from South India) have become co-owners or founders of beauty or fashion / apparel brands in the last few years.Nearly 80% of the brands are those that have grown over the last 24-30 months on the post-pandemic demand surge in the beauty trade.The success that Nykaa's segment is creating and the surge in the aspirational consumer segment in India has made the sector very attractive to the players.

"Celebrity brands make a lot of sense financially. Celebrities can create awareness and recall about the brand, while the platform can take care of the distribution, "says Karan Taurani, SVP, Elara Capital. "Today online delivery is much easier than offline, which is why more and more celeb brands are now coming into the market," he says.

But, what value do you see in the Reliance retail index? And more importantly, are consumers likely to choose it from such countless brands owned by their favorite stars?

However, for Reliance Retail, it may be useful in the short term as it tries to position Tira Beauty as a challenger to Nykaa.

"Reliance Retail is now practically a house of brands. They want to create a huge catalogue of global and Indian labels. So their chances of success are better, "adds Taurani.

With India's BPC market expected to reach $30 billion (Rs 2,50,000 crore) by 2027, more celebrities and 'Bollywood wives' may become brand owners in the future