Founded in 1997 with single salon in Mulund area of Mumbai, Enrich Salon & Academy turned into a private limited company in 2004. Since then, its Founder & Director, Vikram Bhatt had constantly made every possible effort to turn his brand into one of the most sought-after salons in India. The brand is successfully running upto 55 outlets across in the country with plans to open 30 more soon.
In an exclusive conversation with Wellness India, Vikram Bhatt, Founder & Director, Enrich Salon & Academy, spoke about his current action plan, strategy to increase the number of outlets and much more.
Innovation is the Key
When we started this journey, our (Menu) rate card was 3/4th of a page and today, it covers over 25 pages. New things keep on coming within the service category. For example, in manicure pedicure, we have introduced 7 exclusive options starting from entry level to something called ‘elite to cooling to signature’. In waxing also, we have regular, premium, flavoured and international product variants. If someone wants to go for hair texture services, we have introduced 6 straightening or smoothening service options, depending upon the client’s presence, we continue on adding services. We target 25 to 45 year old men and women.
Current position & future plans
We are planning to open 30 Enrich salons in the cities where we are already present, that includes, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad. We might enter more cities in western and southern region of India. Till end of 2017, we will open 2 salons per month. Each of the salon will be spread in over 1, 200 sq ft of area. Each of the salons will have the investment of around Rs 60 lakh to Rs 70 lakh.
Presently, we have around 55 outlets. We grow organically rather than the franchisee route so all our outlets will be company owned.
We will be only concentrate on western and southern region of India. We have no clear plans of going to north or east region.
Marketing and promotion
Out of the total revenue allocated for expansion, we spend around 2-3 per cent to marketing and promotion activities. Bulk of our focus is always in the catchment, in sampling, social media and personalized promotions. We also invite complementary services like our staff giving consultations, product sampling offers to communicate with clients regarding what we are trying to say.
Also there are many e-market places and mobile apps focusing on college crowd and through students are selecting our hair cuts. Students are offered services ata concession rate of 50 per cent.. The student social community called Frap connected with 40 colleges also promotes our student haircuts. We do make a point to participate in youth and college festivals.
Largely we target the upwardly mobile consumers, young people and couples.
Globally accredited
We are accredited with all the international organizations like Sedexo, Sytac, L’Oréal, ABTC, Beauty, CITI and guild. Probably we are the only academy, which has got so many certifications and accreditations with all international authorities.
Views over Indian wellness market
The market is growing, however people with ever growing desire are seeking exposures, developing their look, becoming more modern and travelling extensively. . They are more aware of the trend. For the next couple of decades, need will keep on increasing as people have moved from basic and essential services. They are getting into much better variants in services along with exploring new things like colors, smoothening and straightening.. The targeted age group is getting wider as earlier it use to be 20 to 45, but now we entertain clients as old as 55 and as young as 17. .
On an average gender balance is also happening. Conventionally, women always felt the need of beauty treatment with look and feel good factor, but now men are also getting cautious about their look and feel. They are realizing this need and are also opting for different cuts, colors, manicure, pedicure, and facials. . All these factors are positive for the industry, which is growing by 18-20 per cent YOY.
In the market many brands and players are coming in because of increase in growth. . The industry is been able to absorb new people, new brands and new services. There is no risk of competitive environment where one will lose on some heads to others.
Aggregators' help
E-marketers are also helping in structuring and organizing the market in a better way. The customer with one click on mobile app can see where the nearest salon is, how that salon has been rated and what services that salon is offering. On top of all these e-commerce guys are doing big time charity. Either they are discounting the same value services or giving more value addition for the services. If anyone is offering more value addition or discount that can be a great benefit for the customer. They are also trying to structure customer channel. We are also keeping pace with these new things with our mobile app and associating with market aggregators. 3-5 per cent of our revenue comes from such channels. Presently, we are closely working with four to five market aggregators. Our online demand is just two to three per cent of the total demand.
Overcoming competition
We focus on salon design concept recently we have launched five salons with new designs, state of the art concepts filled with lot of emotions, experience built into creating the structure. Now that has become new benchmark. We are keeping ourself ahead with best people practices. We celebrate cultural festivals with lot of love, passion and care in salons. We do employee connect programme. We keep ourself technologically advance.
Sourcing fund
We continue to grow at moderate space with our own cash flows. We want an accelerated growth journey, so we set up one salon in a month which we can do with our own earnings. As of now we are not planning to go for funding.
Best performing outlet
We ensure that all our outlets are best performing. Every salon takes average 12-15 months for breakeven. Our ROI is 100 per cent.
Current turnover
Last year we had crossed turnover of Rs 100 crore while growing by 20 per cent YOY. 79 per cent of our revenue comes of loyal customers.
