Emami to consult legal experts after HUL changes men’s fairness cream to ’Glow & Handsome’
- Emami labelled HUL move as unfair business practice
- HUL entered the personal care market for men in 2006 with Fair & Lovely for Men
New Delhi: Kolkata-based packaged consumer goods company, Emami Ltd said it will seek consult legal experts over rival Hindustan Unilever Ltd's decision to rename its men's fairness cream brand as 'Glow & Handsome' that bears similarity to Emami's 'Fair & Handsome' brand of men's personal care products.
A spokesperson at the maker of Zandu balm and Navratna oil said Emami is "shocked" to learn of HUL’s decision to rename its men’s range of Fair & Lovely as ‘Glow & Handsome'. The company launched the Emami 'Glow & Handsome’ brand last week.
"Emami Limited, maker of ‘Fair and Handsome’ brand of men’s grooming products is the market leader in the men’s fairness cream with legal ownership of the trademarks. We have already launched a week back our brand ‘Emami Glow & Handsome’ digitally and necessary application has already been made to the relevant authorities."
We will be consulting our legal experts to address this further, the company spokesperson said.
While, HUL's Fair & Lovely dates back to the 70s and largely serviced a female audience, it was Emami that took a leap to launch a men's variant in 2005 after anticipating a growing demand for fairness creams among men. The brand is endorsed by popular Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan. HUL entered the men's personal care market in 2006 with Fair & Lovely for Men.
Emami labelled HUL's move as "unfair business practice".
"Although shocked, we are not surprised to note HUL’s unfair business practice, which has been prevalent time & again to damage our brand image. It goes to prove Fair and Handsome’s strong brand equity in the market that the competition is wary of."
Earlier today, packaged consumer goods company Hindustan Unilever Ltd, announced that it's ‘Fair & Lovely’ will now be sold as ‘Glow & Lovely’, a week after it announced its decision to drop the word ‘fair’ from its popular face care brand.
“HUL today announced the next step in the evolution of its skin care portfolio to a more inclusive vision of positive beauty, and introduces Glow & Lovely, the new name for the Fair & Lovely brand,” HUL said in a statement to the press on Thursday.
The men’s range of Fair & Lovely will however be sold as 'Glow & Handsome’.
Over the next few months, Glow & Lovely will be made available on the shelves.
Analysts who track the market called HUL's move to rename its men's brand negative for Emami.
"Its skin cream for men will be called 'Glow & Handsome', very similar to Emami's 'Fair & Handsome'. So this could be potentially negative for Emami which has anyway been struggling past many quarters in this brand, Abneesh Roy of Edelweiss Securities said in a note.
This isn't the first the time the two companies are at loggerheads over their men's personal care portfolio.
Last year, HUL filed a petition against Emami for disparaging its Fair & Lovely cream (for women) in a television commercial.
In a 2018 injunction order against HUL, Emami sought to restrain HUL from publishing a TVC for the Fair & Lovely Men's brand over claims that it intends to “demean, disparage or denigrate Emami’s product, Fair and Handsome Fairness Cream for Men, thus, interfering into the direct goodwill and business loss for the company".
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Business NewsCompaniesNewsEmami to consult legal experts after HUL changes men’s fairness cream to ’Glow & Handsome’
First Published:2 Jul 2020, 08:27 PM IST
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