I happened to cross a beauty and cosmetics store just adjacent to the mighty Nykaa in a mall…the store looked vibrant although not as catchy and global as the Nykaa…it was named NewU …I stopped and read closely to find it followed by…a dabur enterprise?? It triggered old memories when I remembered that Dabur did foray into cosmetics retail long back…even before Nykaa!!!
Did a digging of old articles, news, strategy of Dabur etc. As cosmetics retail is a great business today… And found out that they begun around 2009, launched online in 2012, have an omnichannel strategy, maybe around 100 Stores, open to investors and had intention to spin off this business from Dabur eventually…
All this made me realise few things…many times intention of company is bang on but execution and competency becomes a roadblock. Nykaa started much late and is today almost as big as Dabur, the parent of New U…New U has no significant visibility as on today… clearly the focus & execution was way behind the new emerging leaders here although the intention was right and so was the timing!!!
It is indeed very difficult to incubate businesses of different competency…hats off to RIL for that!!!
Some good reads below…mostly could find them active till 2017 and then one latest news on their digital marketing…not much I could find 2017 onwards…
Would be great to know more insights into this retail venture of Dabur and if anyone aware how it fared during Pandemic, any change in strategy and what’s latest vision for it?
Thanks
Disc. Invested, biased. Not a buy/sell recommendation. Post for academic purposes only