The Stratos innovation was announced by Hindustan Unilever (HUL) earlier this year. This technology, which took almost five years to develop, replaces palm oil ingredients like polysaccharides, vitamin blends and skin actives, allowing the firm to reduce its use of palm oil by 25%.
With the Stratos technology, HUL’s significantly reduces its reliance on palm oil, making it less susceptible to the fluctuation of palm oil prices.
Furthermore, the new formulation has superior benefits for cleansing, the skin barrier, fragrance delivery and more.
According to the firm, the efficacy and benefits of the new soap formulation have been tested with thousands of Indian consumers and in independent clinical studies.
HUL debuted the technology with LUX and Lifebuoy, the company’s two largest brands.
Notably, the company used the technology to develop a new LUX soap bar with sandalwood oil and vitamin C.
It found that combining sandalwood and vitamin C would meet consumer needs – particularly in the southern and western parts of the country – for naturally glowing skin.
“Given this need for natural glow, the LUX brand found an opportunity to introduce a sandalwood variant leveraging its established glow credentials. Backed by the Stratos technology, this was an unmissable superior product launched in an otherwise white space for us. The LUX sandalwood bar combines 100% pure sandalwood oil with vitamin C to help reduce dullness and fade blemishes caused by exposure to external aggressors with the primary benefit being visibly clear glowing skin,” explained Ritesh Tiwari, chief financial officer, HUL.
The firm said the launch of the new formulations using Stratos has been encouraging.
“We’ve put tracking studies post-launch well across the region, picking up data with consumers and channels, both first-time feedback and what consumers and shoppers are saying,” said HUL chief executive Rohit Jawa.
He added that LUX’s sandalwood bar soap has been receiving good feedback.
The company stressed that it did not want to “jump to conclusions” about the overall impact of Stratos on its portfolio.
“We feel that move is good. Of course, it's a big change, so we want to have more concrete data before we come back and confirm what are the opportunities for us to take it further. What we need to extend and what we need to improve? But we feel positive at this point,” said Jawa.
Tiwari added: “It’s been a few months now we’ve had the revised formulation products fully distributed in the market. Our early read is encouraging as we see purchases, repeat [purchases], we see consumer feedback from all our listening channels. The feedback is encouraging but we would wait a couple of quarters before we come to conclusions about how this has landed.”
Tiwari noted that the firm has sold more soap in the latest quarter compared to the previous quarter.
“There are initial early signs of volume, market share improving. But as I mentioned, we would want to watch a couple of quarters before we start concluding on it,” said Tiwari.
He added: “Are we worried? The answer is absolutely not. We are encouraged and we are positive about the change which has landed, and early signs are good.”
