A tête-à-tête with Shahnaz Husain
Her style of creating a brand without publicity had become a part of Harvard Business School Education programme some time ago and now she herself has become a part of the curriculum at the prestigious Harvard University, US in their "Creating Emerging Markets" project. She has been a pioneer in the herbal beauty and wellness industry in India since nearly five decades now. Shahnaz Husain, Chairperson & Managing Director of the Shahnaz Husain Group of companies, has seen the beauty and wellness business evolve and grow in India virtually from the scratch. Speaking to Debhota Mukherjee of TradeBriefs, Husain delves at length on wide ranging issues- from evolution of wellness business, rise and growth of her brand, challenges faced to way forward, among others. Excerpts...
How has the wellness market in India evolved and grown?
The beauty and wellness industry in India is one such business that has seen steady growth over the last few years. According to a beauty and wellness sector report, “the size of India’s beauty and wellness market will be around Rs 80, 370 crore by 2017-18.” This includes the beauty products business, beauty salon services industry and the spa business. In fact, the spa business has seen remarkable growth in recent times, with the “total well being” concept steadily gaining ground.
The Spa Association of India estimates that the Spa Industry is around Rs. 11,000 crore and continues to grow. This is attributed to exposure to global trends, rising disposable incomes, changing lifestyles, increasing number of women in the work force and so on. In fact, the retail sector is also booming, along with the business in the 2 Tier cities
What would be the percentage wise break up of product and service categories within the wellness market?
It is estimated that the salon and spa business together account for 31 per cent of the total size of the beauty and wellness market.
At what rate wellness market is growing in India?
The compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of the Beauty & Wellness business in India has been around 18 per cent.
In case of Shahnaz Husain, what would be the break-up of product and services categories in its overall revenue?
The salon business accounts for about 30 per cent of our total revenue.
Would this break-up change, going forward?
Although the salon & spa businesses are mushrooming at a phenomenal pace, we also continue to open retail outlets and manufacturing products. So this break-up may not change much.
At present how many Shahnaz Husain centres/and/or Beauty Academies are there within the country and abroad?
We have extended our enterprise through a franchise system. There are over 600 franchise and associated ventures in India & abroad, which include beauty salons, spa, beauty training academies and retail outlets.
What is the number of Shahnaz Husain Beauty Academies that you are looking at over the next two years or so? How many of them would be outside the country?
We are looking at an increase of at least 20 more beauty academies during the next 2 years, of which approximately 5 would be outside the country.
What are the new countries/geographies that you are looking at to expand?
We have recently opened franchise salons in Kuwait, Dubai and Singapore and plan to expand our presence in major countries like the UK, the US, UAE, other countries of the Middle East, Malaysia, Singapore, EU countries like Austria, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, France, as well as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Peru and other countries in Asian and African sub continents.
We have set up a Liaison Office in London, to oversee the business in Europe.
Given the projected growth of wellness market in India, what would be manpower demand over the next 2-5 years in the country? How is Shahnaz Husain Academy/Skill Development centre gearing up to contribute in meeting this huge demand?
One of the main challenges of the beauty and wellness market in India is the lack of trained personnel. In fact, I set up my professional beauty training academy at a time when only apprenticeship training was available to address this issue. Today, we offer Diploma and PG Courses, as well as short-term courses in Beauty.
The beauty and wellness sector is expected to witness the maximum growth among all sectors within the next few years. According to NSDC, “Skilled workforce in beauty and wellness sector would grow thrice as much, from 40 lakh in 2013 to 1.42 crore in 2022, making it the fastest growing job creator.”
How many products do you offer from your stable? How are you adding to this number each year?
We are manufacturing over 375 products for beauty and health care. We have recently introduced Dry Shampoo and a line of Deodorants at the India International Trade Fair for men and women, both for regular and premium segments. Several other new products have been introduced and are in the process of being introduced, like Anti-Hair Fall Serum, Organic Herbal Shampoo, Organic Leave-on Conditioner, Salt & Pepper Hair Oil for greying hair, Silver Sheen Shampoo for grey hair, Hand Sanitizer, Anti-wrinkle gel, Anti-pigmentation, Natural Peel-off Mask Powder, Saffron Plus Skin Serum, Shalife Skin Serum.
What is the current export volume? What is the growth rate? Are you looking at any new geographies?
In the last decade the average growth rate of the company is 19.4 per cent YOY and increase in market participation resulted in increase of revenue by 15 per cent during the last 4 quarters
How do you position Shahnaz Husain brand in the market? Any plans to reposition
Shahnaz Husain brand is the leader in the premium segment in Ayurvedic beauty care and also doing well in the middle segment on the strength of brand identity and brand loyalty.
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