Under the arrangement, Bombay Shaving Company is handling the consumer-facing advertising and customer relationships for Palmolive across e-commerce and D2C.
Colgate-Palmolive India has partnered with Bombay Shaving Company to handle Palmolive’s consumer-facing advertising and customer relationships across e-commerce and direct-to-consumer (D2C) channels, as the FMCG major looks to revive a personal care business that management admitted has been a disappointment.
Speaking during the company’s earnings call on Monday, Prabha Narasimhan, managing director and CEO, said personal care has been an area where the company has not delivered as well as it would have liked, particularly with Palmolive. She added personal care has been “an area of disappointment”, particularly Palmolive.
“Honestly, I don’t think we were best-in-class,” Narasimhan said, adding that Colgate-Palmolive wants to be “best-in-class” in pretty much everything it does.
The company has, however, identified some early positives. Narasimhan said Palmolive now leads the premium handwash segment, although she acknowledged that it remains a relatively small segment and presents an opportunity for further growth.
The partnership with Bombay Shaving Company is aimed at strengthening Palmolive’s digital presence and bringing in the learnings that have helped the D2C company build its business.
Narasimhan said the partnership is broader than simply handing over media spends. Bombay Shaving Company is handling the consumer-facing advertising and customer relationships for Palmolive on an end-to-end basis, but specifically for e-commerce and D2C.
The FMCG major will continue to retain control of innovation, product quality and supply chain. Modern trade and traditional trade will remain with Colgate-Palmolive, as will traditional advertising.
Explaining the rationale behind the arrangement, Narasimhan said Colgate-Palmolive believes Bombay Shaving Company has a better understanding of how the D2C “flywheel” works.
“It’s not a flywheel that we understand as a company,” she said, adding that Colgate-Palmolive is looking to learn from Bombay Shaving Company through the partnership.
The company said it has already seen early signs of improvement from the partnership, although Narasimhan stressed that it is still at an early stage.
“From what we are seeing of the partnership so far and it’s early days, we are very, very optimistic about what Bombay Shaving Company brings to the table already,” she said, referring to “early green shoots” in performance.
At the same time, Narasimhan said the partnership starts from a base that Colgate-Palmolive is not happy with and that there is “miles to go”.
She said the initial wins could be relatively easy to achieve, but the company will have to see how the partnership develops over the next two to three years. For now, she said, optimism around the arrangement is high.
For Palmolive, the partnership represents a more focused push into digital commerce, while Colgate-Palmolive continues to retain control of the brand’s product, supply chain and offline distribution operations.
Narasimhan said she hopes the company will have “better and better news” on Palmolive as it moves forward.
Follow Storyboard18 on Google for the latest and breaking brand marketing and industry updates, along with in-depth coverage of digital news. Stay informed with the latest perspectives only on Storyboard18.
Tags
First Published on August 18, 2026, 08:20:07 IST
