Aria Cosmetics Holdings with attempt to widen the market

Aria Cosmetics Holdings is headquartered in Singapore and has subsidiaries strategically located in Vietnam, Malaysia and Dubai to support a comprehensive international operation covering more than 20 markets throughout Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

“At Aria, our brands and products cater to the specific needs and preferences of each international region, however with a special emphasis on Asian and Middle Eastern consumers. Each brand has its own market positioning and consumer proposition, each delivering on quality, emotion and price.

Aria continues to develop and enhance the value of our core brands as well as new brands, supported by an active new product development programme,” said Aria Cosmetics Holding president Poul Henrik Vargbord.

Aria offers five brands with more than 300 SKUs across categories such as hair care, body care, toiletries and fragrances. After the acquisition, Aria said it would launch more brands for men, teenagers or family to Vietnam. “A few brands would be modified to suit Vietnamese tastes and preferences,” said Nguyen Tien Tho, Aria Cosmetics Vietnam sales and marketing general manager.

Japan’s business daily Nikkei reported last year Vietnam’s burgeoning beauty and healthcare market earned an estimated $120 million in sales in 2009, doubling sales for 2004.

Vietnam’s largest consumer products company Unilever Vietnam Ltd is the market leader in the category. In a latest interview on BBC broadcast early in 2010, Keith Weed, Global VP of Homecare and Hygiene of Unilever announced it had an 80 per cent market share in Vietnam.

The category, however, is getting more competitive. Everyday, new products have been launched from multinational personal care companies such as L’Oreal, Unilever, P&G, Beiersdorf, LG, etc.

“Launching Aria Cosmetics’ brand in Vietnam might be challenging because the personal care market is quite crowded. Since Aria Cosmetics’ brands are new in Vietnam, they will have to market them aggressively to build awareness,” said Huong Nguyen, account director, Violet Communications Ltd.

Aria Cosmetics Vietnam is setting up a research and development centre with manufacturing in ISO 9001 and GMP certified facilities. The manufacture will be opening in July, 2010.