Partners in Personal Care Being able to create products that customers want is key, but being able to create products that customers don't know they want yet is the key to success: Dhruv Madhok and Dhruv Bhasin

One evening in January 2016, Bhasin decided to use his mother's homemade hair gel recipe to style his hair for Madhok's wedding celebration. When Madhok asked Bhasin if he was concerned about hair fall or whitening from the excessive use of hair gel, Bhasin responded that his hair gel was 100% natural and made with organic flaxseeds. The next day, Bhasin sent Madhok a sample. Madhok tried it and noticed that this gel held his hair just as well as any other hair gel in the market. He immediately called Bhasin and said "Let's make this for everyone looking for a safe alternative to style their hair."

They discovered that the same ingredients that caused hair fall and hair whitening were being widely used. Not just in styling products, but in virtually every single personal care product in the country. A larger problem became apparent. Chemical ingredients, known to be carcinogens banned in North America and Europe, are still being used in products made and sold in India.

From that day forward, they envisioned an honest personal care company that would offer trustworthy and credible products, made of the highest quality ingredients that were safe and clean. Based on that vision, with the help of a very talented group of people, the duo brought Arata to life. Arata's focus is to provide premium and aspirational hair care products for enhancement, styling and maintenance.

Talking about their mantra for success, the duo says, "Being able to create products that customers want is key, but being able to create products that customers don't know they want yet is the key to success."

The brand is looking to get to 100crs ARR by the end of this financial year and create an offline presence in the last quarter of the financial year. Giving an insight into the operations, they add, "We work predominantly with contract manufacturing partners, maintaining an asset-light business. We believe that we should not dilute our focus on branding and marketing, which is our core skill set. Our formulations are proprietary and formulated in-house."

Factsheet

• Bestseller: Hair Gel and Hair Cream
• Total SKUs:36
• Team size: 37
• Repeat customer ratio: 35% monthly
• Online platform resulting in maximum revenue: own Website
• Turnover for FY 2021-22: 20crs MRP
• Split between offline and online sales: 100% online