Nykaa And Reliance Show Why Global Brands Pick Different Partners

By Pritha Pahari

What?

Reliance and Nykaa are racing to sign the same big-name founders into India. Fenty Beauty, Rare Beauty and SKIMS have all picked sides in the last year, and each pick tells a different story about how the two platforms work.

As brand consultant Suumit Kapoor put it, Fenty's move to Reliance's Sephora is "close to an internal routing decision," not a real contest between rivals.

Fenty left Nykaa for Reliance in August 2025. Nykaa hit back by signing Selena Gomez's Rare Beauty in June 2026. A month later, Reliance landed Kim Kardashian's SKIMS.

Why?

The reasons aren't the same for every brand. Fenty's switch is mostly about ownership: LVMH owns half of Fenty and also owns Sephora worldwide, so routing the brand through Reliance's Sephora India is almost automatic, not a market decision.

Reliance's real strength is size. It runs over 20,000 stores and counts nearly 400 million registered customers, giving any brand instant reach across the country. That scale is a big draw for labels that want to expand fast or move beyond beauty into wellness or lifestyle products.

Nykaa can't match those numbers, but it wins on focus. It built a loyal, beauty-savvy audience through tutorials and curated content long before Rare Beauty signed on.

Rare Beauty's own CEO said India mattered to the brand and pointed to Nykaa's beauty community as the reason for choosing that platform specifically.

Nykaa has used this same approach before, with brands like Chanel and Estee Lauder's incubation programme.

Not every brand needs a partner at all. Birkenstock skipped both platforms and opened its own stores in India, using rules that let single-brand retailers set up shop directly.

What Next?

The ownership tie between Fenty, LVMH and Sephora may not last. LVMH has been looking to sell its Fenty stake since late 2025, and Jay-Z's investment firm is reportedly in talks to buy it. If that sale goes through, Fenty's link to Reliance could weaken.

Meanwhile, the question is what happens as Tira, Reliance's own platform, builds its own beauty products and sells them next to the global brands it distributes. That setup means Reliance can be a brand's partner and its competitor at once, a mix Nykaa's model doesn't have to deal with in the same way.

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7.8%

That’s how much India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew in the first quarter of FY27, against 6.9% in the same quarter last year, according to data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO). The economy expanded despite heightened global uncertainty and disruptions linked to the West Asia crisis.

Gross Value Added (GVA) grew 8.2%, up from 7.0% a year earlier. GVA measures the value created by different sectors of the economy and offers a view of underlying economic activity.

By the Numbers: Services expanded 10.0% and remained the biggest growth engine. Manufacturing grew 9.2%, signalling a pickup in industrial activity, while investment rose 11.9%, more than doubling its growth rate from a year earlier. Private consumption grew 7.1%, showing that domestic demand also remained resilient.

How We Got Here: GDP growth beat expectations in Q1, coming in well above the 7.1% median forecast in a Reuters poll of economists and the RBI’s 7% projection.

The stronger-than-expected print is notable because economists had expected growth to moderate amid the West Asia conflict, higher energy prices and weaker private investment. Instead, investment accelerated, manufacturing strengthened and services continued to grow at a double-digit pace. Private consumption also held up at 7.1%, while exports rose 12%.

Future: The Q1 numbers therefore give FY27 a stronger-than-expected start. But the economy still faces risks from elevated oil prices, geopolitical uncertainty and the durability of the private investment recovery. Economists had expected growth to slow to around 6.6% in Q2, so the next few quarters will show whether this momentum can hold.

India's Oil Squeeze Deepens

Oil prices rose over 3% on Monday after US strikes on Iran's Larak Island prompted Iranian retaliation on US bases in Jordan, deepening a six-month conflict, Reuters reported. Brent crude climbed to $90.97 a barrel, while WTI rose to $86.31, as traders weighed further supply disruptions and stalled ceasefire efforts around the Strait of Hormuz.

Critical Moment: For India, the crisis compounds an existing crude squeeze. Russian supplies, which hit a record 56% of imports in July, fell to 44% in August amid Ukrainian attacks on Russian ports, China's renewed buying, and looming US sanctions. India has shifted toward costlier West Asian barrels instead, according to a Business Standard report.

Setup: With Iranian exports down to a trickle and Hormuz risks rising, Indian refiners are scrambling for spot cargoes, testing riskier ship-to-ship transfers, as freight rates and Dubai crude futures spike sharply.

Car Market Dreams 6.3 Mn Units

India’s car market is expected to reach 6.1- 6.3 million units by 2031, with small cars reclaiming market share at a much faster pace over the next five years, RC Bhargava, chairman of the country’s largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki, told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting. He credited the recent GST reforms for reviving demand.

Overview: The optimism follows a sharp turnaround as small car sales rose 17% in the second half of FY26 and 35% in the first quarter of FY26, with managing director Hisashi Takeuchi noting 63% growth between April-July and an 83% segment market share.

Setting: Maruti said it has reassessed its long-term plan for sales and production, with installed capacity expected to rise to 3.65 million units by FY31.

The carmaker is also working to expand its presence in alternate fuel vehicles in the ongoing year. The Core earlier reported how alternate fuel vehicles are gaining ground amid buyers chasing lower running costs and the recent volatility in fuel prices owing to the West Asia crisis.

Fiscal Deficit On Track

India's fiscal deficit for April to July came in at Rs 4.55 lakh crore, or 26.8% of its full-year target, government data showed on Monday, a slight improvement from Rs 4.7 lakh crore in the same period last year.

India has set its fiscal deficit target for FY27 at 4.3% of GDP, or Rs 16.96 lakh crore.

By The Numbers: Tax receipts came in strong at Rs 8.5 lakh crore, up sharply from Rs 6.6 lakh crore a year ago.

Non-tax revenue rose modestly to Rs 4.2 lakh crore from Rs 4 lakh crore. Total government expenditure climbed to Rs 17.6 lakh crore from Rs 15.6 lakh crore a year earlier.

Fast Facts: Capital expenditure, spending on roads, railways and other physical infrastructure, rose to Rs 4.5 lakh crore from Rs 3.5 lakh crore a year ago, around a 28% jump.

The increase signals the government is keeping up its infrastructure push despite the wider fiscal pressures.

With 26.8% of the deficit used in four months, the government has significant headroom left to meet its full-year target.

India Infra Bet

India’s state-backed National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) has secured $2 billion in commitments from global and domestic institutional investors for its second infrastructure fund, strengthening the pool of long-term capital available for projects across the country.

Fast Facts: The fund, which targets $3.2 billion, received commitments from investors including AustralianSuper, CPP Investments, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Singapore’s Temasek, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank. The Indian government owns 49% of NIIF.

Future: NIIF plans to deploy the capital across sectors including energy, transport, digital infrastructure, urban infrastructure and electric mobility. It also expects to mobilise another $950 million through co-investments alongside the fund.

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Better Than Expected GDP Growth

On Episode 965 of The Core Report, financial journalist Govindraj Ethiraj talks to Anas AlHajji, energy economist, researcher and writer on the sidelines of the Elara India Dialogue 2026.

• Better Than Expected GDP Growth Is Causing Economists To Revise Their Full Year Numbers.

• Oil Prices Begin Their Upward Journey Again.

• Brokerages Weigh On HDFC Succession, Wait To See Who Becomes New CEO 

• The Company That Sells More Watches Than Switzerland Is Seeing A Leadership Transition.