Prabha Narasimhan

About

When Prabha Narasimhan took over as MD and CEO of Colgate-Palmolive (India) in 2023, her task was to ensure that the country’s most sought-after oral care brand, Colgate, performed to its potential. Despite being sold in 6.5 million retail stores, there was something amiss. Apart from traditional rivals HUL, Dabur and Patanjali, Colgate had to deal with over 400 upstarts on various e-commerce platforms. Narasimhan decided to capitalise on what her company was best at—offering the highest quality dental care, backed by science and technology. She invested in category development. The company’s first move was to give a facelift to its largest sub-brand, Colgate Total. It positioned the brand as the best anti-bacterial protection that one could get from a toothpaste by infusing arginine technology into it (to help re-mineralise one’s teeth). The company also forayed into whitening, and started focussing on therapeutics with its gum healing toothpaste, PerioGard. “These are the three spokes of our premiumisation wheel. These three products grow at 3x compared to the rest, and we hope to accelerate this further,” says Narasimhan. The company registered a 26.4% YoY growth in PAT and a 33.7% rise in Ebitda margins in FY24. Though the overall consumption slowdown has softened growth in FY25, Narasimhan is happy with the company’s trajectory. “We have delivered very strong top line growth coupled with strong bottom line growth,” she says. The company has also forayed into whitening with Visible White Purple. “Whitening as a segment in India has huge potential, but there is very low penetration—only 2% share of the market versus 25% in the U.S. or in advanced markets,” says Narasimhan.