Colgate collaborates with Bombay Shaving Company for Palmolive ads

MUMBAI: Colgate-Palmolive (India) has handed over end-to-end management of all consumer-facing advertising and customer relationships on Palmolive to Bombay Shaving Company, chief executive Prabha Narasimhan said on Monday.

The tie-up is for e-commerce and D2C platforms, with modern trade and traditional trade staying with Colgate. Colgate sells shower gels, washes, and liquid hand washes in India under Palmolive brand.

“End-to-end is really all the consumer-facing advertising and the customer relationships on Palmolive are being handled by Bombay Shaving Company,” Narasimhan said in the company's quarterly analyst call.

The partnership, aimed at leveraging Bombay Shaving's D2C expertise, comes at a time when the management acknowledged that the personal care business under the Palmolive brand has not done well.

“I must confess that this has been an area of disappointment. We've not done a great job with Palmolive,” Narasimhan said.

Narasimhan said that the partnership is in early stages and has shown green shoots. She did not elaborate further on the tie-up.

“We're looking to leverage this partnership because we believe that they have a better understanding of how this entire D2C flywheel works. It's not a flywheel that we understand as a company, so we're looking to learn from them and that's why we've entered into this partnership,” she said.

Colgate first invested around ₹18 crore ($2.6 million) in Bombay Shaving Company in 2018, with the Hong Kong arm of the global consumer company leading the round and picking up a 14% minority stake.

The company had initiated calibrated pricing action in the first quarter to overcome commodity price volatility. “We've taken around the low single-digit level of price increases in the last little while,” said chief financial officer M.S. Jacob. “We will keep an eye on costs, because gross margin is something we are looking to keep in the range and not let it slip by, given, you know, the advertising investment we are looking to do,” he said.

Colgate significantly increased its advertising and promotional investments in the first quarter of FY27, with spending rising 33.7% year-on-year to ₹251.86 crore.

Colgate-Palmolive India reported a 7% increase in its consolidated net profit at ₹343 crore. Net sales increased to Rs. 1,591 crore from Rs. 1,421 crore for the same period last year. “We expect revenue growth momentum to improve and return to near-double-digits in FY27F vs flat in FY26,” analysts at Nomura said in a 24 May report.

Shares of the company closed 0.86% lower at ₹1964 on the National Stock Exchange, while the benchmark NIFTY 50 moved 0.32% lower today. Colgate’s shares have declined 6.20% year to date.