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Japan’s Largest Cosmetics Firm Shiseido Bets on India Growth With First Launch in a Decade

Shiseido Co. is launching its first makeup brand in India in almost a decade, bringing popular line NARS Cosmetics to local beauty shops as it seeks to carve out a share of the booming consumer market.

Indian consumers are “immensely” interested in color cosmetics, Tan said in an interview, referring to the industry term for products like eyeshadow, lipstick and blush. “We are also entering into a segment that speaks to the consumer who’s looking for individuality, particularly in the higher-end, premium prestige segments.”

Global brands are being drawn to the world’s most-populous country, betting that its young shoppers and rising affluence will fuel expansion over the longer term. India’s cosmetic products market is projected to grow 4.2% a year over the next five years, driven by the popularity of the color cosmetics sector, according to a report by research firm Mordor Intelligence.

How NARS fares may also influence future offerings. Shiseido plans to introduce more brands to India as it sees increasing demand from consumers who are internet and social-media savvy and have more awareness of international names, Tan said, without providing specific details.

“India is a market that’s high potential” but it’s also a market that is not a fast play, she said. “India is known as a market that you have to invest, nurture, and grow.”

EK: Emerging market and young affluents

Luxury Retailers Are Following the Money to India’s New Affluent

The opening of the four-story flagship makes Sabyasachi the latest luxury retailer to follow the money to southern Mumbai, which has been the home of India’s financial services industry since the precursor to the Bombay Stock Exchange began there under a banyan tree in 1875. In more recent years, Hermes International, Christian Louboutin and others have set up shop, willing to pay the neighborhood’s skyrocketing rents for space in historic real estate and access to a rising upper class.

“The coming of age of the Indian high net worth individual market is really attracting luxury players,” said Anurag Mathur, a partner at Bain & Company in New Delhi. The pandemic fueled a desire for personal luxury while limiting travel, making Indians buy these goods in their home country, he said. For luxury brands, “there’s clearly a desire to look for a new frontier and India very much, with its change, offers that.”

Signs that international brands are paying attention were on full display earlier this year when Dior chose Mumbai’s iconic Gateway of India as the backdrop for its first runway show in India. The collection boasted sequined dresses, bright pops of pink and traditional Indian needlework on jackets, skirts and bags in an appeal to local consumers, and their wallets.

“If you look at Mumbai, the streets have remained the same, but the people have always changed,” said Abha Narain Lambah, principal architect at Abha Narain Lambah Associates, which has worked on restoring buildings in the area. The previous occupants of the colonial-era buildings in southern Mumbai — stockbrokers, for example — weren’t looking at the architecture or the design value of it, she said. “Gentrification, new entrepreneurship, change of use is a feature that we have to embrace as long as those buildings can be recycled and adaptively reused.”

EK: New money, HNWIs in India, and real estate prices

Xiaomi Supplier Dixon to Open Smartphone Plant Near Delhi as India Pushes Local

Xiaomi Inc. supplier Dixon Technologies India Ltd. is set to open a massive new factory on the outskirts of New Delhi, as India pushes Chinese tech firms to use local assembly partners.

Beijing-based Xiaomi has been compelled to partner with Dixon for smartphone assembly because India is pressing Chinese companies to localize everything from manufacturing to distribution of devices.

India, the world’s second-biggest smartphone market, is a hotly contested region for the world’s largest phone brands, with manufacturers such as Apple Inc. competing to boost sales in the world’s most populous country. Xiaomi is betting on a gradual recovery, as it looks to offer affordable locally made 5G smartphones.

The Xiaomi partnership is another boost for the homegrown Dixon, which is among the companies vying to become India’s response to Foxconn — Apple’s Taiwanese supplier most famous as the key maker of iPhones.

EK: Local production following where the market is – local production ratio (just like in the US)