The Nitty-Gritty of Fragrance Industry - 2025 & Beyond

In an exclusive interaction with Adlin Pertishya Jebaraj, correspondent of Homes India Magazine, Arjun Ranga, Managing Director of N. Ranga Rao & Sons Pvt. Ltd., discusses the changing trends in consumer fragrance preferences, advancements in technology for packing and producing fragrances, and the industry's transition to being more sustainable.

Arjun Ranga has demonstrated innovation in the worldwide fragrance, wellness, and home-care industries. With an engineering degree from SJCE, Mysuru, India, and an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management, USA, he adds global business knowledge to India's heritage brand, Cycle Pure Agarbathi. 

How do you see the current consumer preferences in the fragrance industry?

The current consumer preferences are highly determined by what they are applying on the personal care side. Generally, the movement is towards bright, fruity, exotic and gourmand notes. The world is finally becoming exposed to a much broader range of international flavors and aromas and consequently, the trends in fragrances are becoming livelier and more colorful with a tendency towards exotic scents and light scents, as opposed to heavy, rich, and musky scents.

How do you stay updated on the latest advancements in fragrance technology and new models of development?

The French and Italian fashion designers usually develop trends in fragrances. Such trends are a trickle-down of fragrance. The fashion trends normally have an emergence of between six to seven months after fashion trends emerge. As an example, the fashion trends today are focused on the lighter shades such as beige, and fragrances are reflected as well.

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How does the industry evaluate the environmental impact of different packaging materials?

Packaging involves the recycled board as a general procedure in the industry, thereby making it a very eco-friendly product in general. The majority of packaging solutions in the production of agarbathi are recyclable and this aspect is positive in terms of sustainability.

Can you elaborate on the role of technology in enhancing fragrance packaging?

The initial great advancement in mechanization was to occur in the agarbathi-making process itself. The amount of manual production of a woman was traditionally 3 kg per day. In her current condition, she will be able to produce close to 30 kg per day with the help of machines and technology and this would enable her to earn much more. Also, there is the introduction of semi-automation in packaging, which incorporates touch-free systems to ensure product purity. Mechanization and the use of PLCs are now used in packaging processes, which are now being done with better efficiency and hygiene.

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How do you see the future of the fragrance and agarbathi industry and how technology is shaping the future of this industry?

The agarbathi industry has a strong future. Even though Agarbathi is still mostly used in prayer in India, today, it is also being utilized in other areas of the life of people in their living rooms, in meditation, in chanting, in yoga, etc. The use of fragrance is also a part of the whole since it helps to develop the atmosphere that will be needed to conduct prayer and meditation.

Technology is currently being applied in several business areas. As the demands of supply chains have increased, the majority of companies have automated their operations through RFID, barcode scanners and other tracking mechanisms to ensure that they deliver the products at the right time. 

At the consumer front-end, AI, and analytics assist us in knowing the consumer behavior, buying patterns, and preferences. Geotagging and geofencing are also used to analyze perfume preferences and applications in different areas. Frazer changes as the geography changes so do the preferences of the fragrances. Yet technology is but a complement, not a substitute to what we do because ours is a sense of smell business, and there is still no science yet capable of reproducing the human sense of smell, which happens to be the most important constituent of agarbathi.