Doubling direct rural reach, Dabur wants to stay true to its roots: CEO Bhalla

Dabur, whose portfolio ranges from Chyawanprash to Real juices, wants to premiumize its products while expanding its rural presence, chief executive officer (CEO) Herjit Bhalla told Mint.

"In rural, what we are looking at doing is we want to double our direct reach. We want to go to 100,000 villages directly,” he said.

“We're, we're going to be true to our legacy,” Bhalla said. Dabur began in 1884 as an Ayurvedic medicine venture founded by Dr. SK Burman. The company continues to position Ayurveda as its core philosophy and the basis of its products.

Bhalla said the premiumization push would not come at the expense of the mass-market portfolio. "Our focus is going to be to do both. Our general trade carries our core. Our alternate channels, e-commerce and quick commerce allow us to innovate, drive premiumization and bring in parts of the SKU mix that are difficult to carry with the core into our sales system,” he said.

Premium products, which once accounted for 17% of Dabur’s business, now contribute 20% of sales. The company wants to raise that share to 23% over the next 18 months, or sooner. The portfolio is growing at four times the rate of the overall business.

Growth reset

Bhalla was appointed CEO of Dabur India's domestic business on 23 April 2026. Following the departure of global CEO Mohit Malhotra, the company elevated Bhalla to the position of whole-time director for a five-year term beginning 14 November 2026.

He takes charge at a crucial time, as Dabur is contesting the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s (FSSAI) labelling standards in court. In August, the Delhi High Court stayed the regulator’s order, observing that it should not have passed the prohibitory order without first giving Dabur an opportunity to be heard. Bhalla reiterated the company's commitment to following FSSAI regulations.

Bhalla said he would return with detailed plans for the business after assessing its priorities. "I've spent enough time in the business now to be able to really fine-tune what our direction should be, and that's what we want to come back with in the next six to eight months,” he said, referring to his transition period.

Dabur has already outlined medium-term plans. Vision VII is its corporate strategy for FY25-FY28, while IGNITE is the operational reset and execution roadmap for the second half of that period. IGNITE was introduced at the company's analyst meet on 5 November 2026.

Under the programme, Dabur plans to improve distribution productivity through 40,000 priority urban retail stores equipped with AI-based must-sell lists. The company also plans to invest more behind its core brands, which account for 60% of its business, while scaling faster-growing brands across supplements, over-the-counter products, wellness, skincare and food.

Funding growth

Dabur is also looking to fund these investments through cost savings. "Through our efficiency programme, we saved about ₹115 crore in the last 18 months. We want to take that up by 1.5 times in the next 18 months so that we can fund some of these investments,” Bhalla said.

Acquisitions are another part of the growth strategy. Dabur launched Dabur Ventures in October 2025, an investment platform with a capital allocation of up to ₹500 crore, to invest in new-age, digital-first businesses.

"We are looking largely at minority investments in D2C brands through Dabur Ventures. But we're also looking at strategic acquisitions outside of this fund, where we come in and take a majority stake,” Bhalla said.

Dabur has taken majority stakes in two recent acquisitions, Badshah Masala and Sesa Care. Both are established consumer brands, unlike the early-stage startups that many of its competitors have been targeting.

Younger brands are also seeing faster growth on online platforms, which are becoming increasingly important sales channels. "At an overall level, alternate channels contribute roughly about 30%. Out of that, e-commerce is 13%, and out of that, quick commerce is 70%,” Bhalla said.

Dabur has been trying to attract younger consumers through product innovation. It launched Siens, a premium direct-to-consumer nutraceutical and wellness brand, in June 2025. It has also introduced a gummies version of its popular herbal supplement Chyawanprash.

Margin watch

The growth push comes as Dabur faces pressure on profitability and volume growth. The company reported an operating margin of 17.8% in July-September FY27, down 60 basis points from a year earlier. Its 5.5% volume growth was also lower than that of peers, analysts noted.

“A bigger concern is the skewed growth across the portfolio; the legacy healthcare segment has delivered irregular growth for several quarters now, and seasonality remains a critical moving part here,” analysts at Systematix Securities said after Dabur’s quarterly results on 4 November.

“OPMs can hold up relatively better in 2H27 amid elevated/ volatile input-cost inflation, but the combined impact on OPMs of premiumization-led mix improvement, targeted cost savings and planned step-up in brand investments needs to be monitored,” they added.

Dabur’s shares are down 24.63% since January on the NSE, compared with a 4.60% decline in the benchmark Nifty 50.