Born in India in 1965, Sawai Fragrances is a traditional Indian manufacturing business that is changing the way the world sees (or smells) perfume, in its new avatar in New Jersey.
Sawai Fragrances was founded by Mr. Sawailal Jain in Kanauj, India – an area that is home to a huge variety of flowers traditionally used in fragrance creation. 60 years on, his granddaughter Purvi now takes the mantle of Master Perfumer, and has brought the Indian fragrance market’s spiritual leader out to the international market.
In 1984, Sawai Fragrances became the first Indian name tobring their fragrances to the international market. It didn’t take them long to figure out that the traditional uses of fragrance in India differs from global usage. They quickly pivoted from being the makers of just essential oils and attars to a large-scale manufacturer of various forms of fragrances that can be used in every industry – from bath products, home fragrances to perfumes, food flavoring to retail store experiences. Very quickly, Sawai Fragrances’ business became about supplying to other businesses.
Just like color is to sight, and music is to hearing, each fragrance has been developed to become the very meaning of beauty to the human sense of smell. To achieve this, fragrances need to be carefully handcrafted in order to achieve the perfect mix. This painstaking detail is what sets their product apart, and what makes the Master Perfumer Purvi’s job so vital. “Unlike many of our competitors, we don’t just run raw material through a machine to extract our fragrances. We believe the global market demands aromas they’ve never experienced before, and that’s why we’re innovators first, and manufacturers second.”, she says, when asked about the importance of innovation to her brand.
Over the years, the quality, aroma and uniqueness of the exotic, native-to-India fragrances have bred humongous demand for Sawai Fragrance’s products. Clients have often noted that the fragrances are of high quality, and tend to linger in the memory of their customers, thereby creating positive associations with their brand. In a world where brands invest millions in curating well-rounded, unique brand experiences, these quality fragrances create essential memory patterns for brands, using one of man’s most basic senses. Thus, Sawai Fragrances isn’t just an innovator. It’s an innovation enabler too.
“We have recently launched a couple of retail brands of our own,” says Purvi about what’s next for Sawai Fragrances. “We hope to bring those to the global market, along with a catalog of fragrance-based innovations that help us bring more authentically Indian fragrances to the world in a variety of formats,” she concludes. In a world clamoring for relevance in people’s minds, eyes, ears and taste buds, Sawai Fragrances is an innovator for the nose – a sense they are experts at ruling for the past nearly 60 years.
