Meet These Two Makeover Masters Of Beauty And Wellness MarketThese five entrepreneurs give an account of how they are changing the dynamics of salon and spa business at Indian Salon & Wellness Congress 2017.

ByEntrepreneur India

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

Entrepreneur India

Salon as an organized vertical in the beauty and wellness market has relatively been a newer and fragmented space. Of course then, existence of legacy players in this space is quite unlikely and if at all there were, you won't see any of them around today. But exceptions exist like unisex salon chainEnrich Salons and Academy (Enrich)that was launched as a friendly venture way back in 1997. And it took its own sweet time – 13 years precisely to scale up instead of withering away. And then it was nothing short of a transformational growth.

Straight out of college, the young finance graduate in 1997, Vikram Bhatt along with his buddy Rohit Dedhia and a common friend played out on an idea of setting up a salon business. "It was not the initial idea. So it was quite an accident as only our common friend knew how it could work. Back then, the salon business wasn't considered as a great profession and it was neither popular," recalls Bhatt, Founder and Director, Enrich.

Three years later, the common friend moved overseas after her marriage leaving Bhatt and Dedhia in the lurch but, "We clung to it as we started liking it," adds Dedhia, Co-founder and Director, Enrich.

Enrich grew to four salons till 2004 and to 12 till 2010 setting up back offices and learning how to manage a small chain. But the growth was average and Bhatt reasons for that. "We weren't serious about fast tracking growth but then we realized of a great opportunity and the need to scale it up as a premium yet value-for-money brand," stresses Bhatt, former vice president at the global IT and consulting companyAccenture.

Quitting Accenture in 2011 and focusing on Enrich led to 35 per cent annual hyper growth. From four-page to more than 30-page menu and from 12 to 60 salons across Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Pune and Vadodra.

People Power

Bhatt takes great pride for being one of the very few salon brands that is extensively pro-employee or technicians focused company. "Our people management skills are one of the best. For e.g., our technicians and entire team work five days a week. No other salon or retail business offers that," says Bhatt.

Enrich believes in self-love first to do other things in life and that's what reflects in its tagline – love begins with you. Salon industry suffers from very high employee attrition rate, anywhere between 50- 100 per cent a year.

其中的原因之一已非结构化d career path. The duo wary of this trend made Enrich the first chain to create a career path for them.

"Within a year they become master stylist or beauty therapist and grow further in few years to becoming trainer as well," explains Dedhia.

There are other industry firsts as well that they claim. To name a few, setting up a central call centre for managing customer requests, introducing disposable aprons and towels made of Viscose, doing rigorous quality and customer experience audits of each salon, enrolling employees for professional counselling services, etc.

The company forayed into home-based services by acquiring home salon brand Belita in August 2016. But Enrich too has been getting buyout offers since early days. And Bhatt is serious of not letting it go, though he quips, "If somebody today give us handsome multiples of revenue then why not, we will hand over the business but we are not that easy to give up."

Scaling Up Prettily

Year Of Launch:1997, Mumbai

Total Centres:60 across Ahmedabad, Vadodra, Pune, Bengaluru apart from Mumbai

Technicians:Over 1,000

Customers Per Month:1,200-2,000 per centre

Expansion:150-250 centres in next five years

Cagr:35%

Revenue Mix:45% from hair services, 35% from skin services, 17% from retail products, 3% from memberships

Average Bill Value:Rs 1,400 for women, Rs 900 for men

Funding:$10m from JM Financial Fund in 2010 & 2011

(This article was first published in the May issue of Entrepreneur Magazine. To subscribe, clickhere)

Wavy Line

Related Topics

Entrepreneurs

The Leather Shoe Maker

In 1997, Leayan Global Pvt Ltd (LGPL), a part of the billion-dollar RSPL Group, launched its flagship brand 'Red Chief', with the aim of providing quality leather footwear to its customers and today 'Red Chief' has expanded to more than 24 states with 5000 MBOs (multi branded outlets).

领导

From Indore to BSE

EKI's journey began in 2008 as a start-up initiative in Indore and it is now present in 17 countries around the world.

Money & Finance

How to Make Money Online: 10 Proven Ways to Make Money Online

Need to know how to make money online as a side gig or new career? Check out this breakdown of the 10 top online money-making methods.

Thought Leaders

I Pitched 300 People a Day For 1 Year — and Learned This Impactful Entrepreneurial Lesson

After working myself to the bone pitching 300 people each day for one year, I came out of that experience as a new man — but surprisingly, an unhappier one. Here's what I learned.

Data & Recovery

Get 1TB of Cloud Storage for Life for $119.97 With This Back-to-School Sale

This 1TB Cloud Storage Solution Is Only $119.97 for Back to School

News and Trends

Mufin Green Finance Raises $1 Million From Shell Foundation

The funding is aimed at catalyzing commercial debt by enabling Mufin to leverage approx.$ 40-60 million debt over five years