We have elaborate yearly expansion plans in India & Middle East: Kaya CEO

Pioneer in specialized skin care and delivers with customized skin care services and products since 2003, Kaya Skin Clinic, offers a combination of qualified dermatologists and US-FDA approved cosmetic dermatological procedures in India and Middle Eastern regions. Over the past 13 years, the company has increased its reach to 106 skin clinics and over 70 Kaya Skin Bars including shop-in-shop stores across 27 cities in India and 20 skin clinics in Middle East.

To find out more about the company’s growth strategy and business plans, Wellness India caught up with Subramanian Srinivasan, CEO, Kaya Ltd to share untold saga of his entrepreneurial journey.

Current attrition rate
Having seen business for some years we know that, its biggest challenge is to retain good people. There are a lot of reasons why, the company like us have an attrition of around 30 per cent. We are pre-dominantly a women-based organization, and sometimes, our employees do leave us for various other reasons then just switching to other companies. These could also be due to change in family priorities, children and spouse relocations.

Current turnover
Kaya Group delivered a top line of 330 crore last year across India and Middle East.

About Kaya academy
We do have a training center for captive consumption. We have a unique model and we emphasize a lot on training in ‘The Kaya way’. Our Clinic Managers/Dermats and Beauty Therapists undergo substantial training which span from 30-60 days before they are deployed to the clinic.

Products and services offered
Kaya is a skin care solution provider, where, we offer services from laser hair removal, to anti-ageing, to fairness, pigmentation, to a set of products to maintenance services and high-end facials. We also have an extensive range of over 50+ SKUs for skin alone. These are retailed through our clinics and newly introduced products that too only on retail outlets and Kaya Skin Bar.

Retail presence
Our Services are available across 106 clinics in India and 20 odd clinics in Middle-East. Products are not only retailed through our clinics, but are extensively available through our newly introduced product retail format – The Kaya Skin Bar. We have our own stores and kiosks in high street and malls.
    In addition, we also have tied-up with Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Central and with wellness chains like Health&Glow and Religare. The company also has an e-commerce website- shop.kayaclinic.com and has partnered with leading online retailers- Flipkart, Purple, Amazon, Nykaa, Jabong etc.

All products are researched and developed by our dermatologists, are non-drug based and focused on an efficacious delivery, marketed on Kaya brand name.

Logistics for eCommerce supply
Our products are researched and developed by our dermatologists, manufactured and retailed through our clinics and bars under the Kaya brand name. We have third party logistics to deliver products on eCommerce sites to customers.

Current market position
There is no qualified or syndicated research available to gauge market share. Our offerings vary and include medical services, products and high-end facials. We are focused to grow in a sustainable/profitable manner through wider range of offering and innovation, to meet customer needs.

Challenges of skin care business
Kaya skin clinic has unique model of retail amalgamation, hospitality and medical business. Most of the learnings we got by taking risk and professional experiences, that helped us grow and understand this business. Currently, we have over 200 dermatologists at our center in India and the Middle-East. This is a very new segment in India; therefore, the onus was completely on us for creating consumer awareness about the segment and services on offer.
   The clinic business is a high fixed cost business and requires investment in technology and people from time-to-time. A lot of time and effort is spent on training our people to drive consistency of delivery to consumers. However, with the kind of attrition the industry faces, it’s a continuous on-going challenge. Lastly, scalability brings in its own complexity, especially in a service business.

Technology at the core
We have always tried to be the first mover with respect to technology. We continued to invest and scale-up what is best, keeping in mind the best interests of our customers, to deliver efficacious services.

Factors boosting business
With the increasing need to look good and feel good, the skin care market is slated for good growth. In India, the demographics are favourable with young population, growing disposable income and desire to look good. Kaya is well poised to leverage this- both in products and services along with the renewed focus on expansions, to reach out to our consumers.

New innovations in business
At Kaya, our offerings are centred on Dermatologists Expertise, Customized Approach, Solutions Approach (Products+Services in tandem to deliver best results), Efficacious Services and Great Customer Experience. We continuously invest in the best technology, innovate our own offerings and provide best in class training to meet our customers’ expectations.

Views over Indian wellness industry
The industry is slated for big things and it is growing. There are a lot of players experimenting with various business models giving the customer choice to choose from. Brand strength along with offerings is going to be critical to woo the Indian consumer. Over time the customer’s preference would mature enabling the players to carve a niche for themselves.

Creating awareness
Over the years the knowledge and awareness of the need states have become much sharper for the Indian consumers. They are much more specific in what they want. No longer it’s about fairness it is also about de-pigmentation. There is lot of evolution happening in the category, people are getting more aware of not just services offered here but also what is happening outside the country.

Growing market competition
There are local chains and individual dermatologists who are also competing in the same space. There is currently no other national player of the size of Kaya in India.

Evolving skin care market
Skin market in India is very fragmented. The market compromises of basic salon services worth Rs 1,000 crore, products worth Rs 18,000 crore and high-end dermatologist led services worth Rs 1,000 crore. Waxing is approximately 5000+ crore and we expect consumers to upgrade their services over time. For example, laser in comparison with waxing offer benefits both in cost and time over the years.

Pricing strategy
We have wide range of offerings for different requirements and specific skin conditions. Our services ranging from Rs 1, 500 to a few Lakh and our product range falls between Rs 500 to Rs 3,000.

Online presence
Ecommerce contributes 6-8 per cent of our products business. Through E commerce, we also cater to cities where Kaya is not present.

Expansion plans
We plan to open 10-12 clinics and 20-30 Skin Bars on yearly basis. These will be mostly in our existing cities, before we look into new ones. In India we are represented in 26 cities. Our clinics concentration is more towards metros and mini metros. In Middle-East we have about 20 clinics in UAE, Oman and Saudi and plans to open 2-3 clinics on a yearly basis.