You have always concentrated in South market. Do you have any particular plan for non-South market?

Yes, we have saturated south market and out of our total network of 645 salons, more than 550 outlets are located in this market. As we step towards a target of reaching 3000-outlet mark by 2020, we are targeting 10 non-south markets. We plan to grow 40%-50% faster with these new markets. Some of the locations that we are targeting are Pune, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Indore, Raipur, Ranchi, Patna, Kolkata, Northeast etc. In Mumbai, since it’s a market of highest rental and investment, we plan to acquire some already-established chain. 

What’s the concoction of CoCo and franchisee-operated network?

Till 2013, we had about 50 CoCo outlets. However we realized later that our real value comes from franchisee-operated model. Now, we have only 5 CoCo stores, which is about only 1% of the total network strength.

What are the different formats you have for Naturals salon?

Our biggest format is Naturals Ayurveda, which is a combination of salon and Ayurveda services and the format involves space of around 2500 sq ft. Our unisex format covers around the same space. The third large format is Naturals Unisex which spans across 1200-1500 sq ft.. Our smallest format is Naturals Women which spans less than 800 sq ft.

What kind of retail design do you follow and how are you going to innovate?

We keep our hair care section common but skin care section is exclusive. 50% of our space in each outlet is dedicated to skin, nail and bridal while 40% is dedicated to haircare. Chennai-based Saran Associates has drawn our ID and constantly innovating the design with us. Taking the tech savvy route, we will soon be introducing Mask Mirror, which will double up as view mirrors as well as brand communication for us.