Self-care products set to grow big, says Haleon CEO

Last year, British consumer healthcare company GSK had separated its consumer healthcare business from GSK Group to form Haleon, an independent listed company that sells non-prescription drugs, vitamins and oral care products.

“People’s interest in everyday health and wellness is continuing. This growing focus, an emerging middle class and sizeable unmet needs are where we can innovate and provide products in a sector that’s really poised for growth,” McNamara told ET.

ET Bureau

Haleon, the maker of Sensodyne toothpaste, Centrum health supplements, Crocin tablets and Iodex pain relief balm, is seeing consumers a lot more interested in proactively managing health, which is a Covid-19 dynamic that’s stuck, McNamara said.

“The other big trend is governments worldwide too are under pressure in their healthcare systems and, hence, are promoting the role that self-care can play to treat minor ailments, to take that pressure off the healthcare system,” he said.

“In India, too, during the entire Covid-19 pandemic, the government messaging has been very clear, with self-care with programmes like Ayushman Bharat.”

Haleon, which counts the US, China and India as its top priority markets, is betting on India’s 1.4 billion population as a market that’s primed for growth. A growing number of global chiefs across consumer businesses, including Apple, Coca-Cola, Sketchers and Mondelez, have categorised India as a crucial growth bastion at a time when many Western markets have slowed down.

McNamara said the company has seen “very little downtrading” in healthcare. “Dental recommendations, for example, in the case of Sensodyne, carry a lot of weight. So people don’t downtrade – that’s a big barrier to downtrading. The idea of buying a lower-priced toothpaste is a big barrier to that trade down,” he said.

The last two years saw consumer goods companies worldwide battling record cost increases of raw materials, fuel and packaging linked to pandemic disruptions and the Russia-Ukraine war, though the last two quarters have seen inflation waning in India.