Fifty years of building brands in Nepal
Santonza Group was founded in Kathmandu in 1975. For five decades we have done one thing consistently: taken brands Nepal had never heard of and made them part of everyday life here.
That work has grown into five business areas, a network of 7,500 retail outlets across more than twenty cities, and a portfolio of over fifty international brands. It has also grown into things we did not set out to build — a prescription lens lab, an owned e-commerce platform, a retail group, and a training programme that has put thousands of professionals through our classrooms.
Fifty years in, the ambition is unchanged: to make Nepal a market the world's best brands can build in, not merely sell into.
Firsts, and the categories we built
In fifty years we have launched and scaled brands across seventeen categories — eyewear and beauty through to confectionery, glassware and household goods. Several of the names Nepali households treat as ordinary today arrived here through our warehouse.
We have worked with EssilorLuxottica, Unilever International, L'Oréal, Fossil Group and Casio, among others.
Launched brands from
L'Oréal and Unilever International
Introduced glassware
as an organised category — and remain its largest shelf-space holder
Our own lens lab
surfacing, coating and edging, in Kathmandu
Portfolio breadth
Seventeen categories, so a new brand lands in a network that already knows its channel.
Field force
A 100+ field sales team, with ERP tracking across primary, secondary and tertiary sales.
Key accounts
Direct modern-trade relationships, and Nepal's leading five-star hotels serviced directly.
Financial strength
The balance sheet to hold stock and extend trade credit — what actually funds a brand's growth in a market like Nepal.
Education is how a market grows
We train the practitioners who use what we distribute.
salon professionals, across 1,000+ salons
vision care professionals — optometrists, opticians and optical staff
professionals trained in total
- Unmatched product & brand portfolio
- Proven brand-development capability
- Unmatched geographic presence
- People, culture, values & attitude
- Emerging market segments
- Sharper product positioning
- Premiumisation of categories
- Consumer communication
- Available whenever, wherever, however
- Innovation & renovation
- Operational efficiency