CHENNAI: Cholayil Private, the company behind iconic brands Medimix and Cuticura, is in the process of raising around $50 million (around Rs 400 crore) in private equity (PE) funding as the 54-year old brand looks to capitalise on the natural push in personal care.
Cholayil has appointed investment banker Houlihan Lokey to manage the fundraising, which will see the family-owned group dilute a minority stake for the first time. The valuation and extent of stake dilution will depend upon the ongoing discussions.
“We aspire to become a Rs 1,000 crore revenue company in the next 3-4 years and want to raise investment to get there. We are in advanced stages of discussions with several PE firms and hope to close the round soon,” Anupam Katheriya, CEO, Cholayil Private said in an interaction with TOI.
The funds will be used to expand product portfolio within the personal care segment, strengthen processes with latest technology, and grow the team. “We have clocked high double-digit growth rate in the past few years and we realised that there is far more potential that exists for the brands that cannot be met by just internal accruals,” Katheriya said.
Cholayil Private, led by Pradeep Cholayil, sells mainly in the North and West and counts Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Gujarat as key markets. The company also exports to over 30 countries, and its products are made at two facilities located at Tada in Andhra Pradesh and Haridwar. Earlier in March, the company appointed Katheriya as its new CEO to bring in professional management.
VP Sidhan, father of Pradeep Cholayil invented the Medimix formulation in 1969 and started mass production in 1983. In 2007, the group was split into two- Cholayil Pvt for operations in the North, West and East India and AVA Cholayil in the South being managed by Sidhan’s son-in-law AV Anoop.
Cholayil’s key brands include Medimix (soap, body wash and face wash), Cuticura (talc, soap and deodorant) and Krishna Thulasi soap. It also has its own Ayurveda wellness centre Sadayush and premium D2C brand Sadhev. It has an advanced R&D centre -the first AYUSH-certified centre- in Ambattur, Chennai comprising various labs for perfumery, natural ingredients quality check, instrumentation labs, and new product development among others.
The premiumisation of personal care and strong push for natural products in this segment have been tailwinds for companies in the sector. Medimix is today a leading brand in the natural soap category, which is a Rs 35 billion market as of FY23. Other players include Margo, Pantanjali, Mysore Sandal, Chandrika and others.
