D-Mart's Radhakishan Damani buys Bangalore-based Health & Glow for Rs 750 cr: Report

Radhakishan Damani, founder of Avenue Supermarts, has acquired Health and Glow, which is a Bangalore-based beauty and personal care brand, for Rs 700-750 crore, The Economic Times reported on Friday. 

Damani, who has a net worth of $15 billion as of April 4, 2023, has reportedly bought the personal care retail chain from the family offices of Rajan Raheja and Hemendra Kothari. This is Damani’s second big acquisition after Bombay Swadeshi Stores in 2015, which is the country's oldest retailer that was founded by freedom fighters Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Mummohandas Ramji and industrialist JRD Tata for Rs 42 crore. 

Health and Glow, which was launched in 1997, opened its first physical store in Chennai. Since then it has opened over 175 stores located across Indian cities including Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Pune, Mumbai, Cochin, Kolkata, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, and Hyderabad among other locations. In FY22, the company clocked Rs 200 crore topline and is expected to close FY23 with Rs 370 crore of sales with a 15 per cent Ebitda margin. 

As per market research firm Euromonitor International, the beauty and personal care market of India is estimated to be $18.3 billion by the end of 2023. Damani’s entry to the segment already have well funded players like Nykaa, who have dominated the sector in the recent past. The segment, of late, is increasingly seeing consolidation of brands or bigger conglomerates making an entry. 

Last week, Avenue Supermarts Ltd reported a mere 2.3 per cent year-on-year (YoY) rise in net profit for the quarter ended June to Rs 695.36 crore, despite a double-digit growth in revenue. 

The hypermarket chain operator reported an 18 per cent YoY growth in revenue for the quarter to Rs 11,584.40 crore. 

In Q1 FY24, Avenue Supermarts’ total expenses surged 20 per cent on year to Rs 10,700 crore. Employee cost rose 13.4 per cent on year to Rs 178 crore. The tax outgo for the quarter was Rs 236.32 crore, compared to Rs 230.2 crore a year ago. 

Avenue Supermarts is one of the largest food and grocery retailers in India. DMart took eight years to start its first ten stores.  

The company now has 327 operating stores with Retail Business Area of 13.5 million sq. ft across Maharashtra, Gujarat, Daman, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, NCR, Chhattisgarh and Punjab as of June 30, 2023. 

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