Reliance Retail is moving into the salon business and is negotiating a 49% stake in Naturals Salon & Spa in Chennai.
Reliance wants to compete with Hindustan Unilever’s Lakme and local brands including Enrich and Geetanjali.
A joint venture to acquire an approximately 49% stake in Groom India Salons & Spa, the company that operates Natural Salons & Spa, is in the final stages of a joint venture, said executives familiar with the process.
“They have around 700 outlets across India and Reliance wants to grow it four-five times, However, the existing promoters could continue running its operations, and Reliance’s funding will help network expansion.” voiced one of the executives,
India’s 20,000 crores hairdressing industry has approximately 6.5 million players, including hairdressers and barbers. It was one of the sectors hardest hit during the COVID-19 pandemic when the CEO of Grooms India Salon & Spa asked the government for social media funding to keep the 20-year-old business alive.
“Negotiations are in the early stages. All businesses have been impacted by Covid, and salons are probably the hardest hit. But over the past seven months, the business has been resilient and we are not losing share because of the coronavirus,” said CK Kumaravel. , CEO of Naturals Salon & Spa.
“In the past two years, beauty chains such as Enrich Salon, Kapils Salon, YLG, Juice Salons, Bodycraft Salon & Spa, Truefitt & Hill, and Jean-Claude Biguine have turned to beauty retailers to offset their impact on service businesses during the pandemic. Reliance Retail will also use the network to plan a new standalone beauty business to provide a specialty sales and distribution store for beauty products,” executives said.
Reliance Retail also plans to open a standalone beauty store. Last quarter, he acquired a majority stake in Kumgeum Mayuri, a company that owns and operates Insight Cosmetics.
