Beauty salon chain Naturals has licensed a third party to open Naturals brand restaurants. Under the license it has thrown open a Naturals retaurant in Chennai.
According to CK Kumaravel, founder and CEO, Groom India Salon and Spa Pvt Ltd that runs Naturals, it will allow the brand licensee to open more restaurants through franchisee model.
You can soon expect juice shops, organic products outlets and gym, he smiling said.
The casual dining restaurant follows the ‘chipotle’ concept, where the consumers can select Indian rice, bread, two starters, vegetarian and non-vegetarian options. “We have Indianised the concept to suit the locals,” Kumaravel informed. The restaurant that opened recently was set up by the brand licensee at an investment of Rs.20 lakh.
On licensing the brand, Kumaravel observed that it was the right time for brand licensing to tap the revenue from royalty on the licence. “The awareness about franchise and brand licensing are going up,” he added. But the challenge in brand licensing is that there are interest only in licensing international brands. And that is where the company is lagging in even though they have good products,” he lamented.
Naturals, that operates over 500 salons across India under franchisee model, plans to increase the network to 3,000 next year.
