Time Group Enters Beauty Segment with ‘Femina Flaunt’
Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd (BCCL) announced the entry into the Indian Salon space with their flagship brand ‘Femina’. A new division – Times Lifestyle Enterprises – has also been formed to manage the segment, with Sandeep Dahiya (Director – Brand Extensions, BCCL) appointed CEO of the new entity. Dahiya would be responsible for exploring and driving growth for the venture while continuing to lead Brand Extensions at BCCL. Further, the company has roped-in Dinesh Bhat (formerly with Unilever India) as the COO for the venture. Dinesh will report into Sandeep.
Commenting on the new venture, Sandeep Dahiya, CEO – Times Lifestyle Enterprise & Director – Brand Extension, BCCL, said, “Beauty is an exciting and a rapidly growing category in India, and we’re confident of making a significant impact in this category through differentiated service offering, personalised consumer engagement, and best-in-class brand alliances. He further added, “The venture will follow a hybrid model of growth in this segment, starting with COCO salons, and simultaneously expanding through a robust franchise program, to create a footprint of over 100 salons in the first 5 years.”
Times Lifestyle Enterprises plans to open their first unisex COCO (company-owned, company-operated) Studio Salon in Mumbai within the first half of 2019. On the occasion of the announcement, Vineet Jain, Managing Director – the Times Group, said, “Our entry into the beauty segment is in line with the group’s philosophy of continuing to invest in newer and future growth opportunities. We have many legacy brands within the group, like Femina, Filmfare and Miss India, amongst others, and this venture would explore relevant, sustainable and scalable business models around these brands in the retail & lifestyle space.”
The salon segment entry follows Femina FLAUNT’s foray into the consumer products space across core fashion categories, with Shoppers Stop in 2015. Femina FLAUNT is already available across 6 categories – apparel, footwear, handbags, accessories, fragrances & eyewear – in more than 60 Shoppers Stop stores, across India and in over 300 eyewear stores, claiming to earn over Rs. 200 million cumulative MRP sales within 36 months of launch.