Lush expands India presence, plans 30 stores in five years | India Business News

Rowena Bird. co-founder, Lush

BENGALURU: To Rowena Bird, India looks very different from the market Lush first entered years ago. The 1995-founded British cosmetics brand, whose founders created the bath bomb, had arrived before premium beauty had really taken off here. Malls were fewer. Imported brands were less familiar. Even Lush’s unpackaged soaps and fizzing bath bombs often needed explaining.This time, Bird believes the market is ready.“The market has very much changed,” the Lush co-founder told TOI. “There are a lot more Western brands… people are open to looking at something new.”Bird said Lush’s mistake the first time was entering too early. Import taxes were high and the market for premium cosmetics was still developing. “I don’t think the market was really ready for us,” she said.The shift is encouraging Lush to move faster in India. Its original business plan envisaged 30 stores over 10 years. It projected annual sales of around £11 million at that scale. The India team now believes it could reach the store target in about five years.Lush currently has five stores in the country. It expects to have eight in FY27 and is forecasting India sales of just under £2 million for the year. Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Hyderabad are next on its expansion map. Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru are expected to eventually have multiple stores.“We are already, in terms of number of stores, doing more than our plan,” said Vishal Anand, who leads Lush’s India business. “I think we should be able to achieve that plan in five years.”Bird said India is currently performing slightly better than Lush had projected. Even at the planned 30-store scale, however, the country would be a medium-sized market for the company. Lush operates across about 55 markets.Local manufacturing is also increasing. Lush currently makes six products at its Bengaluru “fresh kitchen”. These already account for about 6% of India sales. The company plans to increase the locally made range to 30 products, largely across fresh face packs, hair masks, eye pads and cleansers.The Bengaluru unit has enough capacity to support as many as 50 stores. But Lush does not expect to manufacture its entire portfolio in India. Much of the wider assortment will continue to be imported.Indian customers have also challenged some of Lush’s early assumptions. Shower products account for about 26% of sales and haircare about 23%. Bath bombs, which the company thought could be a harder sell in India, have also performed better than expected.Customers typically buy more than two products per transaction, the company said. Repeat purchases are also rising as stores mature. Online purchases currently account for about 29% of its India sales.