From Private Equity To Beauty Business, This Entrepreneur Has Focused on Growth

A finance and management graduate from Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, Ishaan Jain was working in the private equity sector before joining Biotique.

Entrepreneur India

"I felt that Biotique has a tremendous growth opportunity in the future as being perfectly positioned in the cusp of the FMCG sector in the personal care sector," he said.

At the time when Jain had joined the company, it was already a profitable and a well-run business so there wasn't a requirement for a drastic change. "My mother is a biotechnologist so I never interfered in the R&D part but I realized a lot had to be done for growth and expansion of the product. So managing and implementing those changes were critical for me," Jain added.

For example, he hired a large number of sales professionals and expanded the distribution strength, which required a lot of changes in the management. Under his leadership, Biotique opened 100 company-owned retail outlets across the country.

Beside, they also focused on international expansion. As companies grow, they need to imbibe a technological change into the organization, which helps improve the efficiency and reporting.

Believing in this theory, one of the primary changes that he brought in the company was technological. Apart from offline channels, Jain and his team aggressively promoted the product online.

"The year I joined Biotique, we grew at 80 per cent and from that time we have been growing at a CAGR of 35 per cent. The growth is attributed towards international expansions, growth in India, adding new business verticals within the company and cost optimization with scale," he added.

Today, Biotique is a 100 per cent debt-free company, with the family having 100 per cent ownership. "Though there has been a lot of interest by private equity companies we have not divested any stake in the company. We are working capital positive and future growth of the company is internally funded," Jain said.

Speaking about his future plans for the company, Jain mentioned that their focus was on the international market. While traditionally, the company's significant markets have been Russia, the Middle East, and Africa, but, now they are planning to expand in countries like the US, UK, Europe and South Korea.

"Currently we are exporting internationally, selling in key retail outlets and at the same time have presence through e-commerce. It's a multi-fold approach for every market at different stages of implementation," he concluded.