Growth presents both opportunities and challenges for established beauty brands. You have a loyal customer base, an established brand identity, and brand presence in markets already, yet growth means taking on new risk. Growth can be risky, especially if you are going to diversify into new categories, introduce and expand production for the first time, expand across markets around the globe, and other new or enhanced activities that can impact your go to market processes. You’re keeping up with your customers and growth ambitions with additional complexity and workflows and you are likely running low on the resources you already have – potentially – the operations risk will impact you even more through compliance, increased operational costs, and additional strains on resources if scaling-up.
This is where private label partnerships can be beneficial. By partnering with skin care private label manufacturers with strong experience in the use of private label solutions, established brands can reduce risks that expand their risk by enhancing their portfolio successfully and continuing to innovate and market successfully, while not increasing the burden of operations.
In this blog we want to show you how establishing partnerships with skin care private label manufacturers in India and other notable countries in the world can equitably help established brands scale smarter, continue to support value to their compliance, and support the growth of your established brands with longevity.
The Challenges Established Brands Face in Expansion
- Established brands have different risks compared to startups. Below are a handful of risks that are unique to established brands.
- Diversification Pressure – Established brands require routine innovation based on changing customer preferences. But with innovation comes new products – which have the potential to dilute or not work in the market.
- Global Compliance – Establishing yourself in new regions means complying with different rules and regulations which can require lots of resources.
- Operational Challenge – Scaling production while maintaining quality is a difficulty, especially at the forward end of fluctuations in production schedules.
- Cost Pressure – Making new investment in manufacturing capacity or investing in R&D (research and development) infrastructure are big capital investments.
- Reputational Risk – With the established brand already being recognized, any slip in product quality, safety, or compliance damages the brand experience.
For established players, mitigating these risks is critical to protecting brand equity. This is why many are choosing to collaborate with private label cosmetic manufacturers.
What are Private Label Partnerships for Established Brands?
When forming a private label partnership, an existing brand will partner with a private label cosmetics manufacturer who will control product design, product compliance and manufacturing, and is able to meet the brand’s requirements. Instead of building products in-house from start to finish, brands are able to use a partner manufacturer’s expertise to build another category of products under their existing brand.
This is not an exclusive model for startups, but many existing brands are using private label skincare partnerships, as they enter new opportunity areas, such as Ayurvedic blends, organic skincare or clean beauty formulations.
How Private Label Partnerships Reduce Risk for Established Brands
1. Reduced R&D Risk via Proven Formulations
New product development is always important for established brands. However, developing your own formulations can take years of R&D and testing.
By using contract cosmetic manufacturers in India, brands have access to compliant, pre-tested formulations that have been proven safe and effective. Consequently, brands can reduce the potential risk of product failure and shorten the innovation period.
2. Operational Scalability Without the Need for Capital
Established brands often struggle to scale quickly when demand spikes. Building a new factory or increasing production capacity internally requires a sizeable capital investment.
Partnering with contract skincare manufacturers allows brands to scale without the pitfalls of new build outs. Established private label skincare manufacturers will allow for more flexibility — whether they are small batches for niche launches or larger vessels for everyday distribution.
3. Regulatory Compliance Across Global Markets
Going into foreign markets means brands will navigate through complicated regulatory environments – think FDA approvals in the U.S., and EU cosmetic regulations strangling brands left and right.
Some of the best private label skin care manufacturers in India, for example, have compliance teams built in to make sure their product formulations are following any number of regulations and industry standards related to cosmetic manufacturing and distribution including GMP, ISO, ECOCERT and FDA practices. This compliance also limits any risks of recall, bans, or delays in relation to compliance which protects a brand’s reputation.
4. Cost Efficiency for Expansion
For brands, expansion often equals costs, which typically means building facilities, putting together teams and procuring raw materials. Collaborating with a private label cosmetics manufacturer supplier can help the brand be as cost-efficient as reasonably possible in eliminating these fixed cost exposures.
Brands are able to capitalize on the manufacturers’ existing sourcing networks, laboratories, and infrastructure to produce new skin care and beauty product lines at a fraction of the cost. The costs saved in using the private label suppliers allows brands to allocate more money into branding, marketing and consumer engagement.
5. Faster Entry into New Categories
Consumer demands change quickly, from clean beauty to vegan skincare to Ayurvedic, brands must be agile and innovative or risk being irrelevant.
Private label cosmetic manufacturers allow brands to easily test new categories, since they have everything started and ready to go.
For example, a heritage skin-care brand might be able to launch organic body oils or Ayurvedic face masks within weeks, where it could take years internally.
6. Risk Mitigation in Product Diversification
Expanding into new product categories introduces a risk because very few innovations are winners. By engaging with a cosmetic private label manufacturer in India, brands can test just new product categories with smaller test batches before going to full production.
This approach reduces the financial and operational risks associated with failure.
7. Protecting Brand Reputation with Quality Assurance
Reputation is everything for established brands. In fact, just one product recall or quality issue can wipe out years or decades of consumer trust.
Trusted private label cosmetics manufacturers in India maintain quality control measures that drastically reduce variations in quality, thereby creating consistency from batch-to-batch. With certifications like GMP, ISO, and FDA, the adherence to global safety and quality standards for all products they offer is met.
Why India is the Preferred Hub for Established Brand Partnerships
India has risen to prominence as an international hub for private label skin care and cosmetics.
Established brands across the world are partnering with cosmetic private label manufacturers in India for numerous factors:
- Ayurveda & Herbal Expertise: In India, there is long-standing expertise with Ayurveda and natural formulations that provides brands with unique plant-based options.
- Cost-effective Solutions: Lower production costs allow brands to benefit from better margins while maintaining the same standards of quality.
- Export capabilities: Indian skin care private label manufacturers are usually already supplying global markets and know how to comply with cross-border regulations.
- Global Certifications: India’s top players have GMP, ISO, FDA and ECOCERT certifications; meaning they are good partners for multinational brands.
How to Choose the Right Private Label Manufacturing Partner
For established brands, the stakes are even higher! Partnering with the correct organization entails a process:
- Experience with Global Brands – Partner with manufacturers that already approach established global clients.
- Diverse Product Portfolio – Make sure the manufacturer can help you expand into other categories, such as skincare, wellness and Ayurvedic.
- Customization Capabilities – Take into account if the manufacturer has the flexibility to amend formulations and packaging to match your brand properties.
- Certifications & Compliance – Always verify their certifications to be compliant with your target market.
- Innovation Support – Often the best private label skin care manufacturer in India is also willing to put in R&D effort to help brands remain a step ahead.
Final Thoughts
For well-known cosmetics brands, there’s always risk involved in growing the business. When you are researching new product categories, expanding into different markets, or dealing with different country regulations, even the most renowned companies can become stressed. Fortunately, when partnering with the right private label cosmetics manufacturer, risk is slightly diminished.
With skin care private label manufacturers, a brand can grow more quickly, test out in-trend products, and maintain its reputation without the enormous investment of building in-house capabilities.
At Sadatan, we have facilitated trust in growth with both emerging and established brands as the leading trusted, private label cosmetic manufacturer in India. Traditionally Ayurvedic heritage brands or exploring modern skin care formulations, we offer end-to-end services to mitigate risk while enabling brands to grow responsibly in all of their product offerings.
✨ For established cosmetic brands, a private label is not only a cost management strategy — it is a growth accelerant and a risk management strategy for the long-term success of the brand
See our previous article on How Private Label Skincare Manufacturing Makes It Easy to Offer Signature Spa Experiences for more details.