P&G to bring more health and wellness products

New Delhi: P&G India is evaluating bringing more nutraceutical and wellness products into India as the pandemic has led to a jump in demand for such products.

It recently launched sleeping gummies under its Vicks brand; more products under the wellness portfolio such as multi-vitamins and supplements could come to India, said a top executive at the company.

“We are definitely considering from a portfolio point of view in the future as well. Now, I will not be able to comment on it at this stage given that we are still evaluating a few ideas. But at least for next six to 12 months the focus is entirely on establishing this (sleep aid) category and see how consumers respond to it,” Sahil Sethi, Category Leader, Healthcare, P&G India, said in an interview with Mint.

In January, the company that sells home and personal care products under brands such as Ariel, Tide, Whisper, Olay, Gillette, AmbiPur, Pampers, Head & Shoulders, etc, entered the sleep aid category under the Vicks ZzzQuil Natura brand—a melatonin-based sleep supplement.

The move comes as rival HUL invested in two health and wellness brands late last year in what can be seen as a nascent, but emerging interest in the segment. The category includes products such as multi-vitamins and supplements for skin, hair, women’s health, gut-health, sleep, etc.

Globally, P&G sells brands such as Metamucil, a fibre supplement; it also sells vitamin gummies under the Vicks Super C brand.

India is still a developing market for supplements. However, the pandemic has helped drive demand for such products. As consumers worried about their health and immunity levels, demand for supplements and health and wellness products in general went up.

The world over, both large FMCG companies well as pharmaceutical companies participate in the category. Last year, Haleon (erstwhile GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare) launched the Centrum brand of multi-vitamins in India.

“During covid the awareness for all these supplement started going up. We started to see the acceleration in terms of this category during covid. But having said that, looks like consumers have stuck to the habit which they formed during those covid years,” Sethi said.

In the next five to seven years, Sethi reckons that supplements as a sub-segment within the broader healthcare market will continue to grow.

In December, the country’s largest pure-play fast moving consumer goods maker Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) announced its foray into the health and wellbeing category through “strategic” investments in Zywie Ventures Private Limited and Nutritionalab Private Limited. Health and wellbeing, it said, is a fast-evolving category in India with a total potential market size of Rs30,000 crores.

For P&G India, future launches will depend on emerging consumer need-spaces. “It will completely depend on what consumer needs are, and more importantly, what their unmet needs are. We continue to assess some of these ideas, but at this stage for next six to 12 months the focus is entirely on the sleep segment,” he added.

P&G operates through three entities in India of which two are listed on NSE & BSE.