Japan’s Mandom puts business in India on hold

Mandom Corporation has decided to temporarily suspend its business in India conducted through Mandom Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd.

The Indian company, a consolidated subsidiary of PT Mandom Indonesia, was established in March 2012 to distribute and market the company’s cosmetics in India. Explaining the move, Mandom said that although the cosmetics market in India remained strong, the currency exchange risk had increased considerably since the Indian rupee had fallen by about 20% against the US dollar since business began. Mandom aims to build a new business model to minimise the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations in India, and will continue to market in other high-growth markets.

The Indian market is growing rapidly and dominated by Hindustan Unilever, the largest FMCG company in the country. The market is expanding from major cities to semi-urban and rural areas with competition intensifying as new entrants vie for share. At the end of 2013, annual growth in the Indian beauty and cosmetics markets was forecast to remain in the 15-20% range for the next few years. Valued at US$950m, the market is likely to almost treble to $2.68bn by 2020, according to The Times of India.