Story of Emami Ltd- Converting 20,000 Rupees into 20,000 crore + enterprise

This is the story of how classmates turned business partners created a company worth 20,000 Crs + Market cap with a starting capital of JUST INR 20,000/-.

We are talking about the Emami group which was founded by two friends named “Radheshyam Goenka and Radheshyam agarwal”. Emami Limited is one of the leading and fastest growing personal and healthcare businesses in India.

History:

The inception of Emami group took place way back in mid 1970, in west bengal, where 2 childhood friends R.S Agarwal and R.S Goenka left their high profile job as C.A with birla group to set up Kemco chemical (an ayurvedic medicine and cosmetic manufacturing unit in kolkata with a capital of Rs 20000.

“Kemco chemicals” was set up by borrowing money from Radheshyam Goenka's dad.

In 1978, Himani Ltd became a sick unit and was available for sale. Himani ltd was a 100 years old brand with a good presence in Eastern India. Seeing this opportunity Mr. Agarwal and Mr. Goenka acquired himani ltd and that turned out in the favour of Emami Ltd.

In 1980s Kemco Chemicals launched their first flagship brand BoroPlus antiseptic cream under Himani ltd and not only that they also launched Navratna oil under Himani ltd in 1990’s.

In 1995, Kemco Chemicals became a Public Limited Company and the name was changed to Emami.

The friend-cum-business partners knew too well that it wasn’t an easy task to make a mark in a sector dominated by companies with deep pockets.

Disruption was required to get noticed and sustain in the market. The partners started off by launching Emami Talcum Powder, Emami Vanishing Cream and Emami Cold Cream.They even launched imported French perfumes to expand their product.

Here they played their first masterstroke.

They wanted consumers to feel their talcum powder & creams have an imported product type quality. For this they did two things.

First they came up with innovative plastic containers for the products and second they used to send powder & cream products in the same box as french perfumes to the retailers. This left a smell on their powder & creams containers too. So when a consumer used to go to the shop great packaging combined with this smell made their powder & cream products an instant hit.

Along with above techniques Emami has advertised these product in such a way that 90’s kids wouldn’t forget like for example “Boroplus ad - Safed Teeka (Amitabh Bachchan) Link: https://youtu.be/1hSPkweJ4BQ

But they did not stop here!!! They were just getting started!!!

Remember the dialogues - Hi Handsome, Hi handsome!!! (Ad Link: https://youtu.be/eqtWUezP8VA )

Emami in 2005 has also launched fairness cream for men which is known as “Fair and Handsome”. Emami created a completely new segment by introducing this and for marketing of this product they had associated with Shah rukh Khan as it’s brand ambassador which helped them eventually to become the one of the largest and popular selling fairness creams for men in the country.

With the passing years Emami as a brand gradually diversified into various sectors of business. Apart from FMCG, Emami enjoys leadership presence in diverse segments like paper, edible oil, biodiesel, hospital, real estate, retail and other various segments.

The journey of Emami has travelled many miles to emerge as a huge and diversified business conglomerate. Currently the next generation of R.S Agarwal and R.S Goenka are managing the business.