Aankith & Megha Aroraa, CEO and co-founder of Streamline Beauty India Private Limited have a penchant for taking up challenges and together are redefining the distribution of salon professional range of products in India.
Garnering a strong vision for both Olaplex and Kevin Murphy, the two wish to make these the most reliable and trusted brands for hair care in India. They wish to conquer the entire hair industry by providing a solution for every hair problem and capture salon spaces, dressing tables and bathrooms of a million consumers by 2025.
In conversation with Globalspa, Aankith talks about a strong vision for both Olaplex and Kevin Murphy to make these the most reliable and trusted brands for hair care in India. With these innovations, he wishes to conquer the entire hair industry by providing a solution for every hair problem and capture salon spaces, dressing tables and bathrooms of a million consumers by 2025.
1.) Streamline has completed a decade in the salon sector. How has the journey been so far?
It’s been an amazing journey with a lot of lessons, hardships and wins. We started off as a Calcutta- based company and shifted our head office to Gurgaon, Delhi NCR in order to grow our business. We are now available in Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and are expanding into Bangladesh, Maldives, Mauritius, Nepal and Bhutan. Our focus has always been on driving a profitable performance and having a brilliant team that ensures we reach our goals.
We have always competed with market leaders like L’Oréal, Schwarzkopf and Wella, who respect us for the work we have done with regard to establishing Olaplex in India and now with Kevin Murphy.
We were also the first to conquer the pedicure segment with new products like peel-off for hands and feet i.e. marine-algae mask and ice cream pedicures that are still a huge success. We have recently launched an organic range of mani-pedi “Pedipure” which consists of real rose petals and neem herbs. The organization has redefined the pedicure category with brilliant concepts.
We are firing all cylinders and leaving no stone unturned to make sure that we continue growing our market share, building brand awareness and bringing sales for the brands we represent.
2. How do you develop and deliver the right kind of products, tools, and solutions required by hairstylists and Indian consumers?
India is one of the fastest growing beauty markets in the world. Nowadays, it is full of promise and just beginning to awaken to the potential of hair & beauty. This transformation is being driven by a rising middle class, with increasing disposable income and higher levels of aspiration. The main beauty aspiration of this population is quality. The consumers are value conscious and extremely demanding with regard to quality and experience.
Having a deep understanding of our market, hair stylists, salons and consumers help us with this. The strong bonding with our salon fraternity and the deep consumer understanding that we have developed over the decade is our key to success.
We are always keeping an open eye for new innovations and filling the gap that exists. Many times we advise the international brands on what the Indian consumer needs e.g. for their Hair Care and repair and get them to work on R&D e.g. scalp is the future and we are already working on a breakthrough technology on this with our international partners. January 2023 will see the launch of the biggest range of scalp care products.
3.) Do you think the Indian audience is accustomed to using premium brands as retail? And how do you plan to bring about a change?
In India, people nowadays have become conscious about their appearance and are constantly spending money to enhance the way they look. The changing consumer dynamics, coupled with increasing product awareness, has been identified as the major driver of the market. These changes are majorly due to the high millennial population, migration towards cities, and rising women employment. Focus on the premium sector has been identified to grow among the urban and youth population with consumers willing to spend a decent amount on products offering faster results which is a great fit for our brands. When we offer a high performance product – it works and the consumer is ready to pay.
4.) With thousands of products creating their own space in the market today, what struggles did you face while building brands like Olaplex, Kevin Murphy, and more for the Indian market?
Every new concept comes with its own set of challenges. When Olaplex was launched a few years ago, no one understood the kind of benefits it held. It was unheard of, however, it brought something to the hair care industry that no other product provided, a new category “plex” was built.
Over the years, it has positioned itself as a global favorite and market leader among hair care professionals, stylists and consumers around the globe. There was a risk involved when we brought Olaplex to India, but we believe in bringing new high-quality products and services that will improve the lifestyle of consumers, solve their hair problems, provide the right solution and build their confidence.
Taking risks means that sometimes they pay off, and sometimes they don’t. We have had a lot of brands and launches fail. Nothing comes easy, some risks pay off and some don’t, and that is part of being an entrepreneur.
5.) How do you plan to educate hair stylists and consumers about international beauty trends and products through your brands in the salon industry?
The salon industry is completely education-driven, the stronger we build our education system, the deeper would be the penetration into the market. We not only believe in educating our salon partners on the products that we bring in, but the global trend in the industry to keep them at par. We provide them the opportunity to participate at the global conferences, trainings and workshops which proves to be very useful for them and us. Educating the consumer today is a lot easier than before – we are able to leverage social media with great educational and consumer friendly content to give them exposure on our range of products. Of course growing awareness needs constant hammering and pushing out content and we do it very innovatively using unconventional ways of creating concepts and content.
6.) What’s next for Streamline?
We have had our share of successes and failures and the learning from both and now we are focused on maximizing and strengthening the BOND REPAIR Category in India and really raising the bar and changing the game. We will also launch our first Hair color range of products for the salon professional channel.
We will also in 2023 to further build on our mani pedi expertise, launch the nails category and make our brand the No.1 in nails across salon professional channels in India.
