Oriflame'S Budget Range Cosmetics In The Offing

In a bid to expand market base in India the Swedish natural cosmetics major Oriflame has decided to launch a `budget range' of cosmetics titled Vision later this year.

The company is in the process of putting in place the requisite manufacturing base for developing the range in the country.

With the launch of the budget range Oriflame expects to make major inroads into the mass segment of the domestic cosmetics market.

The company also has plans to widen its distributor base from the 50,000 that it already operates through its Indian subsidiary, Oriflame India.

Speaking to Business Standard, Michal Losek, regional business controller (Asia) said, the launch of the first batch of the budget range is expected to take place in September.

 

The company would ideally like to source all the raw materials for the cosmetics from within the country itself and the facilities for this would be in place by that time.

Losek assured that though the new range would be priced lower than Oriflame's current range of products there would not be any compromise on quality.

"The packaging would be less expensive and the quantity in each product may be a few grams less but there would definitely be no compromises in quality." he said.

The introduction of the new range of cosmetics may also necessitate a widening of the company's manufacturing base in the country.

At present the company operates five manufacturing units. During the current year the company also plans to open full service centres at Jaipur, Pune and Chandigarh, said Lajinder Bawa, chief executive officer, Oriflame India.

This would be in addition to the full service centres that the company already has in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Calcutta.

The Calcutta centre was inaugurated on Wednesday, March 4, completing the circle of major metropolises in the country.

The Calcutta centre would be the hub for the eastern region including West Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.

The eastern region has 10,000 distributors and is looking at a growth rate of about 60 per cent per year in the future.

Oriflame India closed the last financial year, ended December 1997, with a turnover of Rs 32 crore and expects to better its performance significantly during the current financial year.

Oriflame India was launched in 1995 as a joint venture between Oriflame International SA and Rollscon (India) to market the international brand's skincare and cosmetics product in India though the system of direct selling.

The company has no plans to get into retailing even after making an entry into the mass segment in September.