Rejuvenating Shanghai Jahwa

Shanghai Jahwa, China’s biggest domestic personal care company, recently broke away from state ownership. Mr. Ge, the chairman of Jahwa, was confident that the new major shareholder would help the company grow rapidly. Instead of confronting multinational competitors head-on, Jahwa had stressed its Chinese heritage and carved out a niche for itself by developing brands that drew on TCM. Herborist, Jahwa’s mid- to high-end brand that was associated with the principles of Chinese medicine, was a big success. Now Jahwa wanted to reconfigure its product portfolio to address a more aspirational segment than the mid- to low-end personal care market where almost all the company’s brands were operating. Was Jahwa equipped to do this? Were any of the lessons it had learned with the development of Herborist transferable to the luxury segment? How could it accumulate the capabilities needed? What strategy could it use to differentiate itself in this very different segment?