Hyderabad, Jan 2 (.) Santoor, the flagship soap brand from Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting (WCCL), has emerged as India’s largest soap brand by value, clocking ₹2,850 crore in company-invoiced sales (IND AS) over the last 12 months, the company stated in a release on Friday.
With this milestone, Santoor has overtaken long-time market leaders including Lifebuoy, marking a significant shift in India’s highly competitive personal wash market.
Launched nationally in 1986, from revenues of just ₹60 crore in its first decade, the brand has scaled nearly50x, making it one of the most successful FMCG growth stories from India.
A key inflection point came in the late 1990s when the company adopted a depth-over-breadth” strategy, prioritising market leadership in select high-potential states rather than spreading investments thin nationwide.
Beginning with Andhra Pradesh (and later Telangana), Santoor built dominance across South and West India, including Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat, becoming the largest soap brand in these regions by 2009.
By 2018, Santoor crossed the ₹2,000 crore mark and overtook Lux to become India’s second-largest soap brand by value.
The latest milestone of ₹2,850 crore now positions Santoor at the top of the Indian soap category, underlining the effectiveness of Wipro’s execution-led FMCG model.
According to Vineet Agrawal, CEO, Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting and Managing Director, Wipro Enterprises, highlighted continuous product upgrades—ranging from fragrance and sensorial improvements to superior performance in hard water—combined with high-impact advertising as key growth drivers.
Neeraj Khatri, Chief Executive, Wipro Consumer Care, emphasised the role of manufacturing teams, distribution partners and on-ground sales execution in building sustained market leadership in a category dominated by multinational players.
. KNR CDS