Honasa Consumer acquires BBLUNT

Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. (HCPL), parent company of Mamaearth, The Derma Co., and Aqualogica and the fastest growing House of Brands for personal care, has acquired BBLUNT, a premium hair care, hair color and styling products brand from the house of Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL), while also acquiring BBLUNT salons operated by Bhabani Blunt Hair Dressing Pvt. Ltd.

Founded by Adhuna and Ashoke Bhabani, BBLUNT, over the last 2 decades, has built a unique reputation in the world of hairstyling. The brand’s strength lies in its extensive experience of styling Bollywood celebrities and transferring the salon experience & expertise into high quality products. Over the last decade the brand has built a diverse and revolutionary product portfolio. The product portfolio currently consists of hair colors, shampoos, dry shampoos, conditioners, styling products, serums & temporary hair colors. The product insights have come from stylist and consumer interaction and tested in the salon on real consumers – to build a product line crafted especially for Indian hair, weather, and water conditions. This has been the primary distinguishing factor for the brand and has been pivotal in crafting an incredibly unique, carefully considered, beautifully designed product line. BBLUNT enjoys a huge equity with millennials today and has many prestigious Bollywood feature films to its credit like Dil Chahta Hai, which broke the traditional mold of hairstyling in the industry. 

Estimated at INR 6,000 Crore, the hair color and hairstyling category are expected to continue fast-paced growth in India. With increasing millennial demands for innovative and trendy products, BBLUNT has an edge over other brands in the market. The brand has built strong millennial equity over the years, that continues to steadily grow. Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. (HCPL) has established its leadership in the digital realm, launching and successfully scaling Direct-to-Consumer brands for millennials. Being directly connected with consumers, the organization has created digital playbooks that enable brands to take direct feedback from consumers on the products, ensuring a quicker feedback loop, thereby enabling consumer feedback driven innovations. Hence, HCPL can help strengthen BBLUNT’s and use their D2C and E-commerce strength to scale up the business.  

As part of the acquisition, BBLUNT hair care and styling products business will be completely owned and managed by Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. However, BBLUNT salon business will continue to operate as an independent entity, with the founding team Adhuna Bhabani, Osh Bhabani and Avan Contractor as Creative Directors and Spoorthy Shetty as CEO. With the vision and resilience of the founding team and powered by partner Directors Satyajeet Thakur, Thomas Dawes, Ross Coull, Brent Barber and Bangalore partners Gauri, Shauna and Robert Spratt; BBlunt has been able to establish its leadership and reach the pinnacle of its category.

Commenting on the acquisition, Varun Alagh, Co-Founder and CEO, Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. said,” BBLUNT, as a brand, has been ahead of its time with its innovative product portfolio and its digital presence. The brand has carved a niche for itself and considering the market size of INR 6000 Cr. in hair color and hairstyling, the brand has potential to grow exponentially. Being a house of brands, Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. has attained expertise in building millennial brands with a digital-first approach. We will utilize our expertise and proficiency in digital marketing to accelerate the growth and scale of BBLUNT. Since the brands synergize on fundamental principles and strong millennial connect, we are confident that BBLUNT will be a great addition to the Honasa Consumer portfolio.”

Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. has established itself at the forefront of digital branding and marketing and this acquisition will further strengthen the company’s strength in the millennial personal care segment. BBLUNT has been at the forefront of hairdressing, styling, and education for two decades, and continues to redefine hairstyling. The partnership will revolutionize the hairstyling and hair coloring industry. 

Adhuna Bhabani, Founder & Director, BBLUNT said,” The BBLUNT journey has been an extraordinary one, it is a life’s work that led to the creation of our very own product range. BBLUNT and Honasa Consumer Pvt ltd share a strong synergy and common brand values. Honasa is a strong player in the Direct to consumer/e-commerce space and they see great potential in the brand and the salon heritage that we have. We, the team, are very excited to see what the future holds in this exciting new chapter for the brand.”

Spoorthy Shetty, CEO, BBLUNT said, ”This is a significant milestone for our business and is a testament to the outstanding team we have assembled, the rapidly scaling salon business we have created, with a solid academy and shoot vertical that we have developed. We are excited about the acquisition, and we look forward to supporting Honasa’s growth ambitions. This is a win-win situation for both companies and the expected synergies will allow us to broaden our customer, product, geographical & technological base. Our clients will continue to receive the same high quality service, which they have come to expect.”

Through the acquisition JM Financial Ltd acted as an exclusive financial advisor to Honasa Consumer Private Limited.