MUMBAI, Nov 5: Reliance Retail, a subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd
of Reliance Industries, is entering the salon business. It is reportedly acquiring
49 % stake in Chennai-based Naturals Salon & Spa. Hindustan Unilever's Lakme
and Geetanjali are other leading names in the field.
According to ET, Reliance is in the final stage of negotiations with Naturals
Salon's parent company Groom India Salons & Spa. However, the value of the deal
has not been revealed.
Naturals Salon, founded in the early 2000s, has 700 outlets across India and
aims to run 3,000 salons by 2025. Reliance is also expected to launch its own
beauty products like other brands. The salon business suffered the greatest
depression during the two years of covid pandemic as customers without exception
totally shunned the beauty outlets. Today the salon business is back in demand.
"Salon segment has a lot of potential and Reliance is entering the segment
at a right time. Most salons run on a franchise model and this space could see
more such strategic acquisitions by bigger organised companies, apart from attracting
financial investors," Gaurav Marya, chairman of Franchise India, told ET.
Naturals Salon & Spa CEO & Co-founder CK Kumaravel said in a social media post
that this is the "largest turn" in the history of the company as it is "about
to enter the salon industry.
"The talks are at a nascent stage. Covid impacted every business and salon
was probably the worst impacted. But in the last seven months, business has
been robust and Covid is not the reason why we are diluting stake," said CK
Kumaravel, CEO, of Naturals Salon & Spa, as quoted by ET.
Reliance is also in advanced talks for the India rights to LVMH-owned beauty
chain Sephora.
Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd, the holding company of all the retail companies
under the RIL Group, had reported a consolidated turnover of around Rs 2 lakh
crore for the year ended March 31, 2022, according to data put out by ET.
