Индийские бренды подгузников идут на IPO, чтобы вытеснить гигантов с рынка

India’s infant diaper brands are tapping capital markets to take on multinational giants such as Procter & Gamble’s Pampers and Unicharm’s MamyPoko Pants, as they bet on a growing pool of value-conscious consumers. Homegrown players Nobel Hygiene and Swara Baby products have filed draft red herring prospectuses (DRHPs) to raise Rs 150 crore and Rs 1,000 crore, respectively. The companies plan to deploy the capital to fund their expansion plans. In their draft papers, the two players flagged eroding MNC market share amid a surge of digital-first challengers and retail private labels, including FirstCry's Babyhug, Amazon's Supples and Flipkart's Miss & Chief. MNCs’ shrinking share Data from a Redseer research report cited in Nobel’s DRHP shows that the combined market share of incumbents — P&G, Unicharm, and Kimberly-Clark —shrank to 75 percent in FY26 from 85 percent in FY20. It is projected to slide further to 70 percent by FY31. Nobel attributed the decline to a shift in incremental market growth toward value-conscious, first-time adopters in Tier-2+ markets and urban outskirts. "Value-segment challenger brands have been the primary beneficiaries of this shift, growing at a CAGR of approximately 24 percent between Fiscal 2020 and Fiscal 2026, more than double the rate of multinational brands over the same period," it said in the filing. The price war Swara Baby Products, which counts FirstCry, Piramal Pharma, and Himalaya Wellness Company among its clients, said these rising value-segment players have successfully built consumer recall. It has intensified price competition and "accelerated brand-switching behaviour in online marketplaces". Swara Baby Products is India's largest contract diaper manufacturer. “The biggest hindrance to this category's growth has been unit price; products from established players were expensive for a category you end up using for two years of a child's life,” said Santosh Sreedhar, partner at Avalon Consulting. For middle-class and lower-middle-class families, it's tough to sustain that spend when they're already absorbing new expenses that come with a child. So when lower-cost alternatives show up, they open up a whole new, previously unaddressable segment, he said. “As you go down the income pyramid, the market actually gets bigger — you're not just adding new customers, you're adding more occasions of use for existing ones," Sreedhar said. The retail price for infant diapers spans nearly 2x across different tiers. Value brands like Teddyy and Amazon's Supples retail at around Rs 6–Rs 10 and Rs 5–Rs 7 a piece, respectively. Premium market leader Pampers goes for Rs 12–Rs 16 a piece, while mid-tier brands such as Little’s, MamyPoko and Huggies sell in the Rs 8- Rs 15 range. Pampers was among the first multinational diaper brands to enter India in the 1990s, alongside Kimberly-Clark's Huggies. While Nobel-owned Teddyy entered the market in the late 1990s by distributing imported goods, the company began domestic manufacturing of its baby absorbent hygiene products at its Nashik facility around 2010. The brand grew stronger in Tier-2+ markets, with the company deriving more than 60 percent of its revenue from smaller cities and towns, in contrast with multinational brands that remain highly metro-skewed. The Redseer report points out the value tier gap. MNCs' portfolios and cost structures are oriented toward mid-to-premium segments and metro-centric demand, leaving a massive whitespace in Tier-2+ and rural markets, where value-conscious, first-time adopters require reliable quality at accessible, lower price points. "The real challenge is going beyond quick commerce and e-commerce into physical retail, becoming the number one or two preference on store shelves,” Sreedhar said. If they can hold on to that price advantage with a good product, retailers will likely support them too. They see it as a new, growing category that brings them incremental revenue and profit, he added. “Everyone in the value chain benefits when a new category grows," he said. Despite these vulnerabilities, Nobel Hygiene said MNC competitors possess major defensive advantages that pose competitive challenges to homegrown brands. The companies expect competition to intensify across both premium and mass segments, including through discounting, promotional activity or rapid growth of private-label offerings in retail and e-commerce channels. "Beyond brand influence, this is one product category where bulk buying takes place, the online channel is facilitating this buying behaviour," said Manit Mishra, Professor (Marketing) and Dean (Research & Strategic Initiatives) at IMI Bhubaneswar. Scaling infrastructure Nobel Hygiene operates two major manufacturing facilities in Nashik (Maharashtra) and Halol (Gujarat) and makes over 1,158 stock-keeping units (SKUs) across adult, baby, and feminine care segments. Swara operates four facilities in the Indore and Pithampur districts of Madhya Pradesh, with an annual production of 2,032.69 million units of disposable consumer hygiene products. Swara Baby Products announced on August 24 plans to invest Rs 558.47 crore in a new unit in Madhya Pradesh. Of this total capital expenditure, Rs 198.21 crore will come from the net proceeds of its upcoming IPO. Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated! Find the best of Al News in one place, specially curated for you every weekend. Stay on top of the latest tech trends and biggest startup news.