Direct-to-consumer skincare and beauty brand Pilgrim has started a B2B vertical under its salon professional division and will launch the first line of products in May, co-founder Anurag Kedia told FE.
In the works for the better part of the past year, the new division is a strategic focus for the Mumbai-based startup as it looks to boost revenues. The products will first be marketed in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, and Jaipur, and expanded to the rest of the country eventually.
“We have identified a network of 80, 000 salons which we intend to target,” Kedia said, explaining the business universe for the new division.
The salon professional segment has multinational and Indian FMCG giants like L’oreal, Hindustan Unilever, Proctor & Gamble, and Marico. Other than the big names, salon chains like Jawed Habib and Bblunt (now owned by Honasa Consumer) which have their own brand of products also find place in beauty parlour inventories across the country.
Kedia said that while there are some revenue targets in mind, it would be too early to give guidance on the new division’s performance. “We have taken our popular SKUs (store keeping units) like the Red Vine range under the French beauty collection in the D2C portfolio, and extended those to the new salon professional division,” he said.
The products under the portfolio will be priced in the mass premium range, he added.
The new revenue stream is expected to help Pilgrim sustain its ambition of 100% top-line growth on an annual basis in FY26. Kedia said that at the end of FY25, the startup has almost doubled its revenues as compared to the end of FY24. FY26, he added, is the year Pilgrim aims to achieve Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortisation) break even.
Pilgrim’s coloured cosmetics line is also likely to see a B2B vertical down the line, targeting professional make-up artists. In addition to the new B2B division, the firm’s focus for growth in FY26 will include expanding its research and development capabilities, growing the SKU portfolio in strategic categories like hair growth, sunscreens, and face serums, and doubling its offline team across distributor and retail functions.
“Apart from this, we will expand our warehouse footprint to seven, from the existing four,” Kedia said. Currently, Pilgrim’s warehouse network exclusively includes third-party logistics (3PLs) partners, and for now, it will continue to tie up with 3PLs for its inventory and logistics movement. The expansion of the warehouse network is partly linked to increased sales from quick commerce channels, even after the spike seen in the festive quarter (October-December) last year. In Q3 of FY25, the brand saw Q-comm account for 4% of total sales. This, Kedia said, has moved to 8% in the January-March quarter.
Expanding its warehousing footprint will also feed into Pilgrim’s offline expansion plans, as it looks to increase physical presence in the coming months. For now, the brand will grow its offline store network through kiosks in multi-brand and general trade outlets. A fully owned brand outlet is still a while away, Kedia said.
Expansion beyond Indian borders will focus on markets like the UK, Philippines, Qatar, and the Maldives. Pilgrim is already present in international markets like the US, Australia, the UAE, Singapore, and Malayasia.