MegaBrands · Hair oil

Parachute: How Marico Turned Loose Coconut Oil Into a National Brand

Parachute, selected as the Mega Brand for Hair oil by the Business Intelligence Unit of WCRC, began as coconut oil sold in bulk tins to traders. Today Marico says it accounts for about 55% of India’s coconut oil volumes, and its farmer programme has enrolled more than 2.05 lakh coconut growers.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial · Published October 2026 · 8 min read

At a glance

Parachute is the coconut oil brand of Marico Limited, the Mumbai-based consumer products company founded by Harsh Mariwala. The oil was first sold in bulk by the Mariwala family business, Bombay Oil Industries, before Mariwala moved it into branded consumer packs. Led today by Chairman Harsh Mariwala and Managing Director and CEO Saugata Gupta, Marico says Parachute holds about 55% of India’s coconut oil volumes. It is the Mega Brand for Hair oil in WCRC MegaBrands.

Parachute is built on one plain product: coconut oil, packed in a bottle and sold under a name people know. Oiling hair is a familiar routine in many Indian homes, and Parachute’s achievement was to move that routine from the loose-oil trade to a branded pack. That shift explains much of what follows: the trust, the reach and the staying power of a brand Marico has carried for more than three decades.

The story starts in Mumbai’s wholesale market. The Mariwala family business, Bombay Oil Industries, traded coconut oil and spices from Masjid Bunder, near the docks. It sold Parachute oil to traders in 15-litre tins and larger barrels, and shopkeepers then sold it loose to their customers. When Harsh Mariwala joined the family business in the 1970s, he saw a different future. “I saw an opportunity of converting loose to packed,” he later recalled. He launched Parachute in 100 ml, 200 ml and 500 ml packs in Maharashtra, and taking the brand national took eight to ten years. The consumer business went on to become Marico, which says it has been operating since 1990.

In FY2025-26, Marico, Parachute’s parent, reported consolidated revenue of Rs 13,611 crore.

WCRC MegaBrands covers 501 categories in India and selects one benchmark brand in each. It looks at brands through five pillars: Brand Positioning & Recall; Consumer Trust & Sentiment; Product, Innovation & Delivery; Sustainability, Governance & ESG; and Digital & Financial Soundness. Parachute has been selected as the Mega Brand for Hair oil by the Business Intelligence Unit of WCRC (World Centre for Research and Consulting). Here is how Parachute’s record lines up with each pillar.

Pillar 1: How Parachute Owns Share of Mind

Brand Positioning & Recall · weighted 28% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this

Parachute’s name was chosen to carry a promise. Mariwala has explained that Indians first saw parachutes in use during the Second World War, and people came to associate them with safety, security and credibility. Those were the qualities he wanted a packaged oil to stand for.

The second source of recall is sheer presence. Marico says Parachute held about 55% of India’s coconut oil volumes in the year to March 2025, citing Nielsen retail data. The brand has kept building on that base: in the year to March 2025, Marico reported that Parachute gained about 70 basis points of market share.

The third is focus. Parachute has stayed close to a single idea: coconut oil in a familiar pack.

Marico’s marketers have long seen the name as bigger than its category. As Koshy George, then Chief Marketing Officer of Marico, put it in 2019: “Parachute is one of the iconic brands today in the country not just in hair oils but also in personal care.”

Pillar 2: Why India Trusts Parachute

Consumer Trust & Sentiment · weighted 26% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this

Trust in Parachute began with the container. In the early years, even small packs of coconut oil came in sealed tins that were hard to open and could injure the user. Mariwala wanted plastic, but an earlier plastic container in the market had failed: rats gnawed through the square containers, which then leaked onto other goods, and retailers turned them away. Marico designed a cylindrical bottle that rodents could not easily grip or gnaw. To win over shopkeepers, it kept rats in a cage with filled bottles for two days to show the result, and promised to compensate retailers for any damage.

The change did not happen overnight. “We gradually created awareness about the advantages of plastic containers,” Mariwala said at a packaging summit in 2018. Within a short period, he said, the entire market shifted from tin to plastic.

Trust is also tested when costs move. Copra, the dried coconut from which the oil is pressed, rose sharply in price during FY2025-26. Marico raised prices and trimmed pack sizes. When copra eased, falling about 35% from its peak by April 2026, Marico said the brand had taken “selective pricing actions to pass on value to consumers”. It also cut prices on Parachute’s loyalty packs, Managing Director and CEO Saugata Gupta told Business Today in August 2026.

Pillar 3: The Engine Behind Every Parachute Bottle

Product, Innovation & Delivery · weighted 20% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this

Parachute’s supply chain begins on coconut farms in the south. In the days of the family business, Mariwala has recalled, its copra came from Kerala, which then grew two-thirds of India’s coconuts. Today the company also works directly with growers through its Parachute Kalpavriksha Foundation, which runs in five states.

Packaging has kept evolving with the product. Coconut oil can freeze in winter and is then hard to pour from a narrow neck, so Marico added a wide-mouth bottle with a spout. Small changes like these address everyday problems for the person using the oil.

Getting the bottle to shelves takes a large network. In 2025, Marico reported that its products reached 5.8 million of India’s 11.3 million retail outlets, about 1 million of them directly. Its Project SETU aims to raise direct reach to 1.5 million outlets, and in August 2026 Business Today reported that the programme was driving range selling in stores.

There is still room to grow. Marico estimated in 2025 that about 30% of India’s coconut oil volumes were still sold loose, the same conversion Mariwala set out to make decades ago. The brand is moving again: in the April to June 2026 quarter, Marico said Parachute Coconut Oil was “touching double-digit volume growth, its highest in several quarters”. In the July to September quarter, Marico reported that growth had accelerated further, to volume growth in the early teens.

Pillar 4: Parachute, a Brand Rooted in Coconut Farms

Sustainability, Governance & ESG · weighted 16% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this

Parachute depends on coconut growers, and its main social programme is built around them. Marico launched the Parachute Kalpavriksha Foundation on World Coconut Day, 2 September 2017, to train farmers and raise their yields. By FY2025-26 it had enrolled more than 2.05 lakh farmers across about 4.97 lakh acres of coconut plantations, in more than 4,000 villages.

The programme has grown well past its early goals. In 2022, Marico set a target of enrolling more than 4 lakh acres of coconut plantations. Farmers in its productivity programme are visited by agronomists once a month and can call a toll-free care centre for advice, and the foundation runs a knowledge centre at Perundurai in Tamil Nadu. Marico reports more than 15% higher productivity among enrolled farmers. At a World Coconut Day event in Coimbatore in September 2026, Amit Bhasin, Marico’s Chief Legal Officer, Group General Counsel and Secretary of its CSR Committee, said: “World Coconut Day is an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to India’s coconut farming community.”

The parent company has set clear environmental goals. Marico aims for net-zero emissions in its India operations by 2030 and across its global operations by 2040, and it reported in December 2025 that renewables supplied 72% of its operational energy. It is also working toward 100% recyclable packaging by 2030. Launching these goals in 2022, Saugata Gupta, Managing Director and CEO, said: “The need to shift to more sustainable business operations is urgent and critical.”

Governance sits with a listed company’s board. Marico’s 12-member board, chaired by Harsh Mariwala, includes seven independent directors, according to the company’s website in October 2026.

Pillar 5: Parachute’s Growth With Financial Strength

Digital & Financial Soundness · weighted 10% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this

Marico does not publish revenue for Parachute alone, so the parent’s figures give the clearest view of the business behind the brand. Marico’s consolidated revenue from operations rose from Rs 9,653 crore in FY2023-24 to Rs 10,831 crore in FY2024-25 and Rs 13,611 crore in FY2025-26. Marico says the 26% rise in FY2025-26 was its fastest growth in 14 years, and its India business posted 8% underlying volume growth, a seven-year high. Part of that growth reflects higher prices during the copra cycle.

Coconut oil remains central to that business. In 2025, Marico reported that coconut oil, led by Parachute, made up about 38% of its India business revenue, in a category it estimates at about Rs 5,500 crore. Parachute is also sold in Marico’s overseas markets.

The near-term picture is positive. In its update for the July to September 2026 quarter, Marico said copra prices were about 35% below their peak and that it expected consolidated revenue to grow in double digits.

Digital tools increasingly link the brand to its growers. The Kalpavriksha programme had delivered more than 24,000 digitally enabled training sessions by 2022, and the foundation now reports more than 5.6 lakh followers on social media.

The Parachute Benchmark

Every category has leaders. A MegaBrand is the brand its category is measured against. Parachute holds that place in Hair oil in India because its record is strong on every pillar at once. It is widely recognised, trusted for a pack it designed around everyday problems, distributed across the country, tied to the coconut farmers who supply it and backed by a financially strong parent.

Above all, it shows that branding a simple commodity well can create lasting value for buyers and growers alike. Mariwala summed up the idea behind Parachute in a single line: “All I had to do was to convert from unbranded to branded.” Doing it took years of patient work.

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About Parachute

Parachute is the coconut oil brand of Marico Limited, a consumer products company headquartered in Mumbai and founded by Harsh Mariwala. Marico says Parachute accounts for about 55% of India’s coconut oil volumes, and its Parachute Kalpavriksha Foundation has enrolled more than 2.05 lakh coconut farmers. Marico reported consolidated revenue of Rs 13,611 crore in FY2025-26. Parachute has been selected as the Mega Brand for Hair oil by the Business Intelligence Unit of WCRC (World Centre for Research and Consulting).