Greener profits in salon biz

The business of hair and beauty salon across India is now getting more organised. Looking at the changing consumer preferences and growth of the organised beauty and wellness brands in the country, there seems to be an immense potential in the beauty salon market which needs to be tapped robustly. As per the market facts, the hair and beauty salon industry is pegged at about Rs 7,000 crore and it is projected to grow at a rate of 20-25 per cent year-on-year. For prospective franchisees, investing in a salon business is considered lucrative as it is regarded as a recession free business. Looking at the positive trends in the beauty business, Green Trends Unisex Hair & Style Salon, part of Trends in Vogue Pvt. Ltd which is further a wing of CavinKare Pvt. Ltd, entered the flourishing business by setting up their organised beauty salons. Cavin-Kare owns and markets more than 15 popular brands across personal care, home care, food and beverage categories.

Green Trends’ Biz Tree

Since there was a great potential in the market, C.K.Ranganathan, Chairman and Managing Director, CavinKare Pvt. Ltd, established his pioneering footprints in the organised salon space way back in 2000 with launch of men's only salon 'Greenie' that primarily focused on hygiene and professionalism in service delivery. Later on in 2002, the company launched its 'Family Salon' under the brand Green Trends with separate sections catering to men, women and kids all under one roof, during this period salons operated as only gents or ladies salon thus making Green Trends a immediate success.

R.Gopalakrishnan, Business Head of Trends In Vogue who along with C.K.Ranganathan who was instrumental in the conglomerates entry into salon business says: “Our key focus is to provide personal styling and beauty solutions to everyone in the family. We delight over two lakh customers every month through our 241+ salons spread across Delhi, Kolkata, Orissa, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. With successful salons, our brands are all equipped and promised to garner profits in the organised beauty space pan India.”

R.Gopalakrishnan further elaborates, “The biggest differentiation of Green Trends is uniform service experience at all our branches. All stylists are recruited and trained by a core technical team who constantly audits and trains the salon team with latest trends and upgrading skills.” The brand offers all beauty (facials, manicure, pedicure, bridal packages, etc) and hair (haircuts, hair colouring, hair spa, head massage, hair treatments, etc) services for its customers.

Beautify biz via franchising

After making a remarkable mark in the beauty industry through Green Trends, the company launched its lifestyle unisex salon and spa brand 'Limelite' to cater to the requirements of high strata of society and offering its customers well-equipped day spa facilities. Soon, the brand was able to establish its presence in Chennai, Bengaluru and Delhi. Though the first salon was launched in 2001, it's only in 2011-12, when they actually thought of expanding rapidly via franchising. Talking about the business model, C.K. Ranganathan says: “Unlike other franchising brands, we started expansion with company-owned and company-operated (COCO) salons, this helped us to understand the business operations better and develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that would ensure a successful model. Once we started franchising the response has been tremendous.” Franchising is nowadays regarded as every entity's favourite platform for a spreading a wider reach across the unexplored markets with maximum potential. “The deeper you delve into franchising, the more it gives the sense of satisfaction that a brand can create more and more happy franchisees. Franchising is the right option for the salon business to grow. With over a decade of our experience we have distilled the best process and procedures for customer handling, employee handling, day-to-day salon operations to suit the Indian salon space,” says S. Deepak Praveen COO, Green Trends. He also adds: “A franchisee can start the business from day one. They get a trusted brand which the consumer is well aware off and the values that CavinKare imbibes.”

Location matters

When exploring the new markets for brand's foray, Green Trends conducts market research in terms of feasibility (no. of residents, schools, colleges, super markets and other retail stores) of the particular locations. They customise their brand's offerings according to the location and needs of the consumers.

Picking the best

The company seeks entrepreneurs, IT professionals, housewives, doctors and anybody who has interest in the salon and beauty business. They should have an attitude to learn, should be good at managing people and be able to completely involve themselves in day-to-day operations and work in a systematic manner following brands policies and guidelines. A sound financial background is also preferred.

Successfully crossing the hurdles

Every business has its own share of challenges. In beauty business, what really concerns the franchisors' thought process is teaming up with the right individual who shares the same vision and passion for taking the business to the next level. Agreeing on it, Chackochen Mathai, General Manager Business Development, Trends in Vogue, says: “Finding the right partner is a challenge in any franchising business. We have a very stringent evaluation process to select the right partner for our brand. Once a franchisee is identified we work closely with them by provide complete guidance from setting up the salon to operating it.”

To ensure that franchisees are conducting store operations as per brand's guidelines, Green Trends does stringent internal auditing to evaluate the customer experience and service quality of every outlet. The brand also conducts mystery audits at its salons. To ensure that brand's quality is thoroughly maintained across salons, a set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) have been developed for delivering every service and basic salon operations as well. They evaluate and train all its Salon Service Providers (SSPs) by a dedicated set of technical experts to ensure customers are served better. They work with international salon products range to give high quality services to customers with affordable pricing, every service launched goes through extensive testing.

The Green Trends Edge

In a market which is primarily unorganised and entrepreneur driven, Green Trends has worked towards operating business in an organised manner. Green Trends is an expert in setting up a full fledged technical team that focused on training and development of stylist. Apart from the process oriented approach towards salon operations they brought in many firsts in the industry which played a role of catalyst in converting an unorganised industry into organised some of the many firsts included launching skin care services in single use kits to ensure hygiene, certification of stylists to deliver services, paying PF and medical benefits to stylist, the largest service tax payer in the salon industry, financial auditing by KPMG etc. We are the only salon brand to hold a SE 1A rating by ICRA. These initiatives helped us effectively compete in an unorganised segment”. The company has also focussed in creating a superior imagery by celebrity endorsement by leading Bollywood celebrity Kajal Agarwal, we are the first and only salon brand in the entire industry to have a Television Commercial” says Deepak Praveen. According to Chackoachen Mathai, “The biggest differentiation we bring to a potential franchisee seeking entry into the salon segment is we are a corporate unlike most salon brands which are entrepreneur operated. What this offers a potential franchisee is working in a professional environment with professionals apart from a systematic approach right from setting up to operating the salon.” With already having strong roots in the southern market of India, the brand is now taking a step further to initiate its pan India expansion plans. CavinKare's salon service chain Trends in Vogue, is aggressively planning to add 300 salons by the end of the financial year.

All the like-minded individuals who are passionate about starting a salon business can now invest in the franchise opportunity offered by Green Trends and Limelight to gain more returns in the beauty business.

For franchise related enquiry contact: Arun Prashant – 9789944491 franchisee@trendsinvogue.in

Website: www.trendsinvogue.in

Franchisee’s speak

Shyam Kathirvelu, Erode & Salem: Being from a business background and also a franchisee of other leading franchisee brands I was keen on partnering with a corporate similar to my current ones in the salon Industry only Green Trends offers that hence it was an obvious choice. After a great working relation-ship now I have taken up 2nd franchise of Green Trends.

Akila Karthik, Race Course, Coimbatore: Post evaluating brands in salon Industry I partnered with Green Trends due to their process oriented approach in salon operations and business guidance. Continuous support for the franchisee is a key strength of green Trends.

Vanathi Pitchandi, Vadapalani & Kattupakkam, Chennai: Though I am a practicing Doctor I also wanted to try my hand in the beauty industry. From various industry sources I understood Green Trends was the most professional set up to partner with. I am extremely comfortable with their corporate style of work pattern and friendly and supportive nature of the brand which has given me confidence to take a second salon as well.

Murali, Malleshwaram, Bangalore: Green Trends has the most professional set up ensuring constant support and guidance which a franchisee requires. They work closely with the franchisee by providing inputs right from setting up the salon to day to day operations.

Mukesh Jain, Himayath Nagar, Hyderabad: With a background in real estate I was looking to set up a new line of business. I chose Green Trends since the brand was popular and had a complete team of professionals who provided constant inputs which was very important considering my limited knowledge of the industry. The partnership has been really fruitful and promising.

Franchise facts

Investment: Green Trends- Rs 40-50 lakh

Limelite-Rs 50-60 lakh

Area: Green Trends-1,200 sq.ft

Limelite-1,300 sq.ft

RoI: 30%

Breakeven: 26-30 months

Terms of franchise agreement: 5 years

Current stores: Company-owned: 60+

Franchise: 181

Target cities for expansion: Karnataka, ROTN, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Kolkata, Delhi and NCR.

Expansion forecast: To add 1,000 outlets by 2017