Wipro’s Santoor eyes top spot in India’s soap market, aims to dethrone Lifebuoy
Now a Rs 2,700 crore-plus brand, Santoor has expanded beyond bar soaps into liquid hand wash, body lotion, and hand wash segments.
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Azim Premji-promoted Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting is confident that its flagship brand Santoor will overtake Hindustan Unilever’s (HUL) Lifebuoy to become the market leader in India’s soap and personal care segment within the next year, according to media reports.
Now a Rs 2,700 crore-plus brand, Santoor has expanded beyond bar soaps into liquid hand wash, body lotion, and hand wash segments. CEO Vineet Agarwal told PTI that Santoor had already surpassed HUL’s Lux in previous years and expressed confidence that the brand is on track to match or surpass Lifebuoy by next year.
Lifebuoy, also reportedly a Rs 2,000 crore-plus brand, is present in adjacent categories like hand wash as well.
Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting currently boasts a turnover of over ₹10,600 crore, and has aggressively pursued acquisitions to fuel growth. Over the past two decades, the company has invested over $1 billion in acquisitions and scaled 33x.
In recent moves to diversify, Wipro Consumer entered the food business. In December 2022, it acquired Kerala-based Nirapara, a traditional food brand. By April 2023, it completed its 14th acquisition by acquiring Brahmins, another Kerala-based brand known for its vegetarian spice mixes and ready-to-cook products.
