The burden of preserving history falls on brand owners like us: Pushkar Jain

A leading name in the craft of perfumery, Sawai Fragrances has a rich legacy as a manufacturer and supplier of essential oils and fragrances to leading brands around the world. The journey began with a whiff of rose petals in Kannauj by founder, Sawailal Jain, who set up the first hydro-distillation plant for the production of natural attars in 1965. Today’ the brand has distillation centres and plants in Silvassa, Kannauj, Nilakkottai, Orissa, Tirupathur and Surat to develop the finest quality of perfumes.

Sawai Fragrances, one of the leading B2B companies, continues to evolve and has recently made a transition into the B2C segment. It has recently launched its own perfume brand, Eze, which is a carefully curated range of perfumes that has a young and global vibe to them.

In conversation with Adgully, Pushkar Jain, CEO & Perfumer, Sawai Fragrances, talks about the journey of Sawai Fragrances, entering the B2C market with the launch of Eze brand, strong Make in India push, targeting the GenZ audience, and much more.

Please tell us about Sawai Fragrances’ journey so far?

Sawai Fragrances has been in the B2B market for over 70 years and has amassed extensive knowledge and competence in the manufacturing industry. SawaiLal Jain, my grandfather, began Sawai as a small essential oil factory. My father, Prabhat Chandra Jain, took it forward and grew our firm by introducing perfume sprays and expanding into the Middle East. Being the company’s third-generation perfumer, entering the B2C market with our own line of perfumes is a natural progression. The segment, I feel, is an excellent development opportunity for the organisation as well as the beginning of a new creative chapter. With our experience and skills in the area, we can enhance and extend the exquisite fragrance industry in India.

What was the need for Sawai Fragrance to foray into the B2C market after being a leading B2B company for nearly six decades in the perfume industry?

The launch of Eze is a big boost not only to the Indian economy, but also to the morale of the Sawai team, as we get to see the perfumes we worked on being sold in retail under our own name, bringing acknowledgment to our efforts. We have been building the olfactive genealogy (the art, language, and listing of the olfactive families of perfumery) for other companies throughout the world until now, so it would be a joy to do the same for our brand now. That is a feather in the Sawai family’s cap and pushes us to continue growing in the creative area.

What was the creative thought process behind the making of Eze?

Eze was created with careful consideration! It is an idea that rests on the Gen-Z mindset, which is liberal, inclusive, and open to new ideas. In Igbo, Eze means “king”, which is how we see our consumers. The logo is a palindrome to represent fluidity and flexibility, which mirrors the attitude of the generation we are talking about. To provide a connection to the brand, the bottle form takes its inspiration from the emblem itself. The mono carton is also cleverly engineered to read Eze even when stacked upside-down or side-by-side. It is a collaborative endeavour, and we have put our hearts and souls into developing a brand specifically for India’s Gen-Z with a ‘Made in India’ motto. The brand, created by and for young people, is proudly Indian in essence. Hence, when the business flourishes, the country would be happy to have a home-grown brand that may place India on the map as a fine perfumery hub. We also aim to debunk the myth that perfume is enticing and should only be worn on special occasions. We want to promote it as a type of personal statement that can be worn every day.

Eze, in its maiden launch, has chosen to skip the celebrity/ glamour route for real people in its digital campaign, which has the tagline – #ExpressYourEze. Your comments.

#ExpressYourEze means being open to different thoughts, its acceptance and owning your individuality. Everyone has a distinct personality and there are no barriers to expressing them through your life, opinions, and scents! Every day we find something new to do or even better, a new way to do something regularly. And it’s so refreshing to see that the new generation is open to something new and is accepting of the lifestyle that anyone chooses to live; this is what #ExpressYourEze stands for. It is a scent that not only reminds you of someone, but makes you feel empowered as well as reminds you of India in whatever part of the world you are in. Eze has 8 variants and it offers something for everyone as scents have no gender. As for the glamourati, we understand and respect the power of celebrity endorsements and are open to it going further if the path of Eze takes us towards it.

Sawai Fragrances’ and Eze’s perfume story pushes and echoes the Atma Nirbhar Bharat narrative in the perfume industry as it seeks to revive not only the Indian artisanal perfumery story, but also stresses on the need to strengthen its manufacturing capabilities and cut down dependency on foreign markets for its materials.

The fact that it is an Indian brand encourages the feeling that “Eze apna hai”. Additionally, the scent and packaging are of exceptional quality as we do not believe in compromises. With Eze, we want to demonstrate to the world that the quality of Made-in-India products are at par with, or even better than, foreign items. Businesses like Eze will make a mark globally and in doing so, demonstrate to customers that India can also produce high-quality goods. That faith will come with time, and it is up to brand owners like us to keep it alive. We’ll get there when the ‘Make in India’ label becomes more valuable. It is important to be aware and understand that the burden of preserving a history falls on brand owners like us, thus it is critical for us to continue inventing, researching, and establishing previously inaccessible categories and make them available to customers. This, in reality, is my goal as a business owner.