Lakme Salon & its franchisee partners take strong strides towards sustainability

Lakme Salons brings alive the vision to BEAUTIFY THE FUTURE by educating talent in 115 Lakme Academy powered by Aptech centres and creating career and entrepreneurship opportunities for 4000+ team members across 460+ salons across the country.

Taking ahead this mission, Lakme Salon launched its network-wide sustainability initiative under the campaign “Happy New You”. One of the largest chains with 460+ salons across 154+ cities, Lakme Salon aims to reduce its carbon footprint and build a sustainable business model through this initiative, while also inspiring its 1 million+ customers to adopt environment-friendly practices. 

Pushkaraj Shenai, CEO, Lakme Lever, said, “The Unilever Sustainability mission has inspired our team to articulate and live the Lakme Salon vision -BEAUTIFY THE FUTURE- to create a beautiful future for our consumers, employees and franchisee partners by building a sustainable business.”

Lakme Salon, present in 154 cities across India, has 460+ salons with over 360 franchise partners. The brand operates under COCO, FOFO and FOCO models. With a comprehensive 6P franchise model, it supports budding entrepreneurs to set up and successfully run their own Lakme Salon. Through its LEAP program, it also helps tenured employees to set up their own salons.

Lakme Salon’s Sustainability Mission

Lakme Salon took the first steps in this direction in 2018 by making small changes in their operations i.e. switching to LED lighting, installing water-saving nozzles and maintaining optimal A/c temperatures in the salons. Additionally, they planted 40,000 trees that will offset the total carbon footprint of 69 Salons through electricity consumption, in 20 years.

Taking this initiative one step higher, the 2nd phase of the campaign launching on 13th December will have all 460+ salons take multiple actions to go green.

“We are making Lakme Salon operations sustainable from December through our various initiatives. Our vision is being supported and led by our franchisee partners. While the sustainability initiatives are being implemented across the network, we have also launched 8 green salons with our franchise partners this year. These salons use eco-friendly design and materials in construction. We will scale this up with more partners in 2020,” Shenai further stated.

Meeta Patil, Franchise Partner, Lakme Salon, Nagpur, said, “I have been part of the Lakme Salon team for 12 years as a trainer and identify completely with their vision and core values. When I decided to start my own Lakme Salon through our LEAP (Lakme Entrepreneurship Award for Performers) program for employees, I was excited by the idea to build a sustainable salon using the eco-friendly designs and construction. I am proud to be one of the first to launch an eco-friendly Lakme Salon and take ahead the vision of the brand.”

Mukhesh Shah, Franchise Partner with 5 Lakme Salons, added, “ I have been a proud partner with Lakme Salon for over 15 years and welcome this move from the brand to make the operations sustainable. We are taking the steps to reduce the consumption of water and power in our services and hence reducing our impact on the environment.”

Developing more customer engagement

During the year-end festive season, the chain will also roll out exciting engagement offers to bring their customers on board with this initiative.

Customers will receive an eco-friendly scrunchie with plantable seeds with their bills and a reusable bag sourced from the NGO Goonj on the purchase of any product. They can also spin the ‘Wheel of Happiness’ and avail exciting offers for themselves. With every offer redeemed, Lakme Salon will plant 1 tree on behalf of the consumer.

Additionally, every Showstopper member of their Runway Rewards loyalty program will receive an eco-friendly gift including the scrunchies, plantable seed bombs and bamboo speakers.

In keeping with the spirit of the initiative, all salons will be decorated by the employees using old and upcycled newspapers and plastic bottles. Employees will also take the ‘green pledge’ as part of the campaign.