HUL acquires premium beauty brand, Minimalist

Hindustan Unilever has bought 90% stake in Minimalist for an enterprise value of Rs 2,955 crore. This premium beauty brand, found in in 2020 by Mohit Yadav and Rahul Yadav has an annual revenue run rate of over Rs 500 crore and the business has been profitable since inception.

HUL also plans to will acquire the remaining 9.5% in another two years. Speaking about the acquisition, Rohit Jawa, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director at HUL said, “This acquisition is another key step to grow our Beauty & Wellbeing portfolio in high-growth premium demand spaces.”

Why HUL acquired Minimalist?

Explaining the rationale of the acquisition of Minimalist by HUL, the management explained that this company founded in 2020 by Mohit Yadav and Rahul Yadav is among the

1. Fastest growing digital-first brands. It plays in fast growing affluent beauty market
2. Sits at the intersection of beauty and actives-led science and offers HUL complementarity in portfolio
3. Has sharp positioning and masstige pricing. Masstige pricing refers to a strategy where the product pricing is in between mass market and luxury brands. The efficacious products with a distinct and sharp positioning makes business sense for HUL.
4. Has annual revenue run rate of over Rs 500 cr an the business has been profitable since inception
5. Has a strong eCommerce play

Minimalist a good fit for HUL’s Beauty & Wellbeing portfolio

HUL and Minimalist will partner to unlock value through synergies and complementary capabilities. The transaction is expected to be completed before the end of this fiscal. Rohit Jawa, CEO and Managing Director, HUL added that, “We continue to make progress on unlocking a billion aspirations by contemporizing our core business, driving premiumization
through our future core business and ushering market-making in new demand spaces. While we keep a close watch on the pace of recovery and the broader economic outlook in the short term, we remain confident of the medium to long-term opportunity in the Indian FMCG sector and HUL’s ability to grow competitively.”

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