What’s the ratio of your CoCo and franchisee operated outlets? What’s your preferred channel and why?

Out of our 400 (approx) outlets, only 50 are CoCo whereas rest are all franchisee operated. In the last few years, we have been dedicated to the latter channel. Though we opened 5-6 company-owned outlets last year, we think that our franchisee network helps us identifying the right catchments along with gaining data and other qualitative assessments. 

What kind of retail design do you follow and what other design elements are expected in future?

Since our association with the Fashion Week has become almost iconic, we try to bring the fashion Week backstage experience to our salon design. Use of spotlights and other industrial elements justify the environment we strive to create.  We keep on refurbishing the video and audio content and in-salon VM, which are in-line with backstage experience. Going forward, we are planning to add many innovations in our digital interfaces which will bring about an amplified backstage experience along with acoustics, visuals and audio content. 

What all retail formats do you have?

Our most premium format is called Lakme Absolute and we brought this format into being only lately. Spread across around 2000 sq ft, we have three Absolute salons today; two are located in Mumbai and one in Bangalore. Then, we have the Lakme Salon, which is sized between 800-1200 sq ft and this format covers the majority of our outlet spread. In addition to both these formats, we have recently introduced Lakme Fast-N-Fab, which is 400-600 sq ft. This format is meant to maximise the investment cost and will be located at high-footfall catchments.