Wipro: Santoor top brand, beats HUL's Lifebuoy

BENGALURU: Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting’s (WCCL) flagship brand, Santoor, has edged past Hindustan Unilever’s Lifebuoy to emerge as India’s largest soap brand, marking a significant milestone for the firm in the country’s fiercely competitive personal care market. The Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting-owned brand clocked revenues of Rs 2,850 crore in the 2025 calendar year, according to the company’s estimates, overtaking Lifebuoy while Lux trails close behind. While exact numbers are difficult to verify as rival companies do not disclose brand-level revenues, Wipro Consumer Care said it has triangulated data from multiple sources and is confident of its lead. “There is enough of a buffer between us and Lifebuoy,” said WCCL CEO Vineet Agrawal.According to AC Nielsen data for the January–November period, Santoor held a market share of 8.7%, compared with Lifebuoy at 12.1% and Lux at 12.2%. Agrawal, however, contested the data. “Santoor is very strong in rural areas, while the AC Nielsen panel is under-represented in rural markets. Santoor sales are concentrated in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Gujarat. It appears that AC Nielsen’s panel is not weighed adequately for these states,” he said. Email sent to AC Nielsen seeking comment did not elicit a response until press time.When TOI reached out to HUL, it's spokesperson said, “We look at various data sources to assess the competitiveness of our brands. These include published results of the companies and data from Nielsen and Kantar. We do not share individual brand market shares. Currently, we are in a closed period and will not be able to share any more information.”A key factor in Santoor’s recent outperformance has been its positioning as a “premium mass” brand, which has resonated strongly in rural markets. Another inflection point was the GST transition period. “During July–September, when many companies struggled due to inventory disruptions, we managed the transition well,” Agrawal said. Santoor grew about 6% in volume during that quarter and, in the current quarter, is tracking volume growth of over 10%, translating into higher value growth.In financial-year terms, revenue for the 2024-25 financial year stood at around Rs 2,700 crore. “One quarter is still left in the current year. If things go well, we may touch Rs 2,900 crore, but I cannot commit to that today,” Agrawal added. Back in FY22, when Santoor was at about Rs 2,300 crore, he hoped the brand would cross Rs 3,000 crore before his retirement. “Even at Rs 2,850 crore, being number one in soaps is a big milestone,” he said.WCCL has appointed Kumar Chander as its new CEO, succeeding Agrawal effective February 1. By 2018, Santoor crossed the Rs 2,000 crore milestone, overtaking Lux to become India’s second-largest soap brand by value. Launched in 1986, Santoor established a foothold in the market in its first decade, generating revenues of around Rs 60 crore. In the late 1990s, Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting made a decisive strategic shift, choosing to build scale in high-potential markets in one state at a time. Starting with Andhra Pradesh (and later Telangana), Santoor expanded rapidly into Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Gujarat. This calibrated, region-by-region strategy helped the brand gain strong distribution and consumer recall, and by 2009, Santoor emerged as the leading soap brand across South and West India.At the company level, WCCL's revenue rose 3.5% to Rs 10,600 crore in the 2024–25 financial year. Under Agrawal’s leadership, the business grew from about Rs 300 crore in 2003 to over Rs 10,600 crore today. He transformed Santoor into a leading Indian soap brand and led 15 strategic acquisitions.