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Emami, the company behind BoroPlus, Navratna and Kesh King, grew its July–September revenue by 36 per cent to ₹1,088 crore. Its domestic volumes rose 43 per cent. Yet net profit fell about 3 per cent to ₹144 crore, and the reasons say a lot about how this year’s beauty and personal care numbers should be read.

Hair oil bottles, a hairbrush and a hair dryer on a white counter

Sales up, profit down

Emami’s board approved the results for the quarter ended 30 September 2026 on Thursday, 5 November. Revenue from operations came in at ₹1,088 crore, up 36 per cent on the year. The domestic business grew 49 per cent, with underlying volumes up 43 per cent.

Operating profit kept up only partly. EBITDA rose 25 per cent to ₹222 crore and profit before tax rose 29 per cent to ₹194 crore. Profit after tax, however, slipped about 3 per cent to ₹144 crore. Emami said this was mainly because its effective tax rate normalised after fiscal benefits were phased out. It also said input costs stayed elevated through the quarter.

A very soft base

Part of the jump comes from how weak the same quarter was last year. In July–September 2025, Emami’s revenue fell 10.3 per cent to ₹798 crore and its net profit fell 29.5 per cent to ₹148 crore, according to Storyboard18.

That was the quarter of India’s GST rate cuts. About 88 per cent of Emami’s core domestic portfolio moved from the 12 or 18 per cent slab to 5 per cent. In September 2025, shops and distributors held back orders while waiting for lower prices and cleared older, higher-priced stock. Excess rain also hurt sales of talc and prickly-heat products. Growth this year is being measured against that dip.

Acquisitions did some of the work

The 36 per cent headline also includes businesses that were not fully in last year’s numbers. Emami reports a like-to-like figure that adjusts the year-ago base for Axiom Ayurveda and IncNut Digital. On that basis, consolidated revenue grew 24 per cent, the domestic business 32 per cent and domestic volumes 26 per cent.

Those are still strong numbers, but they are a third smaller than the headline. The company’s “strategic investments” portfolio, which includes the men’s grooming brand The Man Company, grew 73 per cent like-to-like and now makes up about 26 per cent of the domestic business. Vice Chairman and Managing Director Harsha V Agarwal said the performance of core brands and these investments “reinforces our strategy of building multiple growth engines for the future.”

Where the growth came from

Skin care grew 31 per cent, led by BoroPlus and the talc range. Hair and scalp care grew 30 per cent, helped by Navratna Cool Oils and 7 Oils in One. Health care, which includes Zandu Balm, grew a slower 11 per cent.

The shift in where Indians buy is visible too. Organised channels made up 37 per cent of Emami’s domestic business. Quick commerce grew to about 15 per cent of the company’s total digital sales. New launches were aimed at those channels: a FromMaa baby-care range under BoroPlus and a Kesh King Scalp First range, both sold through modern trade and e-commerce.

Outside India the picture was weaker. International revenue fell 2 per cent. Excluding Nepal and Iraq, it grew 6 per cent. Emami cited tensions in West Asia, floods in Nepal, commodity inflation and deficient rainfall in parts of India as headwinds during the quarter.

What to watch

Costs. Revenue grew faster than EBITDA this quarter, a sign that elevated input costs are taking a bigger share of each rupee of sales. Vice Chairman Mohan Goenka credited “disciplined execution”, calibrated pricing and productivity gains for holding EBITDA growth at 25 per cent.

The base effect fading. The weak quarter of 2025 flattered this one. Later quarters will be compared with a recovered base, which will show how much of the volume growth is lasting.

Online and quick commerce. With quick commerce already about 15 per cent of digital sales, its share is a useful marker of how fast mass personal-care brands are moving to app-based buying.

Emami also completed a share buyback of ₹281.24 crore and declared an interim dividend of ₹5 per share. Its half-year revenue stands at ₹2,127 crore, up 25 per cent.