New Delhi : Franchise India – Asia’s largest integrated franchise solution company held the annual Indian Salon Congress2013 at the Claridges, Surajkund on 24th & 25th March, 2013. This event provided a direct B2B engagement to many Indian leading beauty retailers combining inspiration, education and wisdom from some of the most innovative thinkers. The Conference brought forward a great networking opportunity that aims to strengthen and organize the industry connections. Over 50 of the industry’s most dynamic, thoughtful and inspirational speakers not only shared their valuable insights but also presented working visionary strategies to help the beauty and salon industry merge with the business.

The first day’s sessions focused on the current state of the Beauty Industry including key speakers on the panel like Mr. Jawed Habib, Chairman, Jawed Habib Hair Hair & Beauty Ltd. and Mr. C. K. Kumaravel, Managing Director, Naturals Beauty Salon India Pvt. Ltd.  Mr. Pushkaraj Shenai,CEO,Lakme Lever, Mr. Sachin Kamat, Director, Enrich Salons & Academy, Mr. Murali Sundar, Country Manager, Schwarzkopf Professional and Dr. Arvind Poswal, Founder, Dr. A’s Clinic shed light on the Men’s grooming market and its Trends, Opportunities and Strategies. Ms. Samantha Kochhar, Managing Director, Blossom Kochhar Group of Companies, Mr. Sandeep Ahuja, Managing Director, VLCC Health Care Ltd identified the key formulas for a brand to win from a business perspective. Ms. Ashmeen Munjal, Celebrity Makeup Artist, Mr. F.J. Singh, Founder, Pevonia Wellness India Pvt. Ltd. Ms. Nandita, Director, Nandita’s TBZ discussed about the requisites while starting a Salon Business and shared their insights on the Beauty Salon Business Plan. The key to a good Salon & Day Spa Business collaboration was defined and key speakers including Dr. Manish Patwardhan, Founder and CEO, Spa Consultants/ Urban Nirvana Wellness Corporation LLP, Mr.  Jesper Hougaard, Chairman & Managing Director, Serena Spa and Dr. B. Rajesh Srinivas, President-Spas Sohum- Core Wellness Ltd. The Guest of Honour, Dr.  Blossom Kochhar, Founder and Chairperson, Blossom Kochhar Group of Companies defined the need for professional training and education to keep the Salon business on Top. Ms. Shahnaz Husain, Founder, Shahnaz Husain Group of Companies & Conference Chairperson, Indian Salon Congress 2013 briefed on expanding and growing the Salon business through franchising.

Mr. Gaurav Marya, President, Franchise India stated, “The two day conference has been an opportunity platform for Salon & Spa operators, retailers and distributors, Skill training institutes, Investors, banks, PE, VC

and Angel investors and Franchisors & franchisees looking for prospects in beauty industry. The beauty industry is changing significantly and it has been really important for us to bring all opportunities together and present it on one platform as or purpose is to make it more organized. We are glad that we have successfully achieved our objective to educate and empower professionals in the beauty industry so that they can tap right business opportunities with right strategy and moreover at right time.”

Mr. Jawed Habib stated that, “Beauty and Salon industry is growing towards more specialized salon chains which are offering exclusive services like Make Up, hair Dressing, Chemicals etc.. The overall industry is growing more organized especially due to the franchise model of expansion and with the emerging demand in the society where consumers are looking at gaining premium services.” He further stated, “We started our expansion with company owned and company operated outlets, followed by Semi-Franchise mode of expansion and now we have zeroed on completely franchise model of retail expansions as it actually helps us streamlining the aggressive expansions. We have great plans for this year; we have already reached out to 400 numbers of outlets across nooks and corners of the country, since last one year when we had 300. We are planning to roll out 30 Academies this year and 10 Bevels by June 26th – 2013 (Bevels is a premium chain of Beauty and Hair Salons). We would be reaching out to 500 Hair Yoga outlets over the next 2 years. We are also aiming at International presence. We are planning to strengthen out footprints across with the target of achieving 50 outlets across UAE, Singapore, and UK markets.”

Mr. Dipra Mukhopadhyay, Analyst – Program Development, National Skill Development Corporation stated, “To keep pace with the dynamic Indian customer whose demand for wellness services is only going to increase going forward, the salon industry must join hands to address the massive shortage of skilled manpower in the sector to realize its full potential.”

Mr. Rob Samet, Country Head- Salon Professional India, Procter & Gamble stated, “I would like to congratulate the team of Franchise India for providing needed forums for the Salon industry to come together and share ideas on how to fuel the momentum in this space.”

The Congress also witnessed the Launch of Indian Salon Report 2013 which highlighted the paramount beauty spending governing industry growth. The Indian Salon industry stands at a staggering USD 2 billion mark and is expected to touch USD 3.5 billion by 2015. Today India comprises of 25 per cent organized salon market, which will increase its share to 30 per cent by 2015. The Indian Salon franchise ecosystem today has a support of over 5000 salon franchisees. Franchise salons will stand to cover 25 per cent of the overall organised industry by 2015 and will grow to be more than USD 1 billion. The research also identifies that 61 per cent of males and 54 per cent of females are visiting salon on a monthly basis and spending more than 60 per cent of the respondents spending between Rs 1000-2000 on beauty services.

The conference was followed by The Indian Salon Awards 2013 which acknowledged the contribution of market leaders & innovators from the beauty services industry. Awardees received national recognition and extensive media coverage with the partners. Such recognition helped create awareness, and built cross industry association across various sectors covering finance, design and aesthetics, service aspects, merchandising, sourcing and marketing through brand building.

Some of the key the awardees were: Jawed Habib who was honoured ‘SALON OF THE YEAR AWARD’, Mr. C.K Kumaravel received the ENTREPRENEURIAL EXCELLENCE FOR SALON LEADERSHIP AWARD and the LIFETIME ACHIVEMENT AWARD was given to Ahmad Habib