| The first Shaadi Point, as the new centres will be called, has already opened in Dadar, Mumbai and it's already getting a steady stream of inquiries from singles who want to get hitched. |
| The company is hoping to find its own matches in lightning swift time and has already advertised for franchisees in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Goa who will be ready to open in coming months. |
| Franchisees will need about 400sq ft to 800sq ft of semi-commercial space and should be ready to invest Rs 4 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. Every centre will be connected to a central database of prospective brides and grooms and should be able to provide allied services such as astrology, grooming and wedding planning. |
| Why has Shaadi.com decided to go offline? One reason is to pull in parents who may not be very comfortable in cyberspace. About 75 per cent of Shaadi.com's members are youngsters looking for their own matches. Only 25 per cent are parents. "At Shaadi Point the services have been developed keeping parents in mind. Our focus is on parents looking for matches for their children," says Anupam Mittal, chief executive officer, People Interactive, the company that owns Shaadi.com, |
| How much does all this cost. Shaadi.com doesn't charge people who want to browse the site. But browsers must pay membership fees if they want to contact anyone through the site. The fees are currently around Rs 950 for three months, Rs 1,650 for six months and Rs 2,750 for a year. For Shaadi Point, the charges range from Rs 1,501 for three months and 60 contacts, Rs 2,501 for six months and 120 contacts and Rs 3,251 for a year's membership and 180 contacts. |
| Mittal is hoping that Shaadi.com and Shaadi Point can gain a commanding position in the gigantic Indian wedding business. He says the site has 2 million registered members and has brought together more than 100,000 couples. He also reckons that about 10 million couples get married each year so the growth prospects are almost infinite. |
| Branded beauty |
| If you've ever sat up nights worrying about the zits on your face, this one's for you. Kaya Skin Clinic has launched a new service that claims to reduce acne by up to 80 per cent. |
| The Kaya Pimple Free uses a combination of laser technology and glycolic peels to attack the root cause of pimples: the over-functioning of the sebaceous gland. The Smoothbeam laser has received approval from the US FDA and is available only at Kaya Clinics in India. |
| Zapping the zits won't come cheap, though. The "introductory" offer is a steep Rs 10,000 for a package of four sessions. But then, as Kaya Skin Clinic CEO Rakesh Pandey points out, the target is the upper middle class, who are used to paying similar charges at dermatologists' clinics. |
| Can a blackhead-gone-bad cause of enough grief to convince clients to shell out big bucks? "It is the No. 1 reason why patients visit a dermatologist," says Aparna Santhanam, head-medical services, Kaya Skin Clinic. |
| The wallet-shocking treatment isn't the only potion up Kaya's sleeve. It's also launched the Kaya Skin Advisory. The advisory brings together about 35 dermatologists from across the country who will chip in to solve customers's problems. Customers can reach Kaya via the net, email and toll free numbers. |
| Kaya Skin Clinic was launched by the Marico group to offer exclusive skin services and treatments under the supervision of dermatologists. The Zen-like ambience at the clinics obviously appeals to customers: each outlet is breaking even within five or six months and 15 outlets have been added across India and west Asia since the first clinic was opened in Bandra in December 2002. Pandey says Kaya plans to take the number up to 28 or 30 by the year end and to over 50 by next year. |
| New concoctions |
| In today's world value addition is the name of the game and companies are always looking for ways to shed their commodity status. So, there's plenty cooking in the Rs 7,500-crore chicken market, where processed chicken accounts for barely 7 per cent of feathered fowls consumed by Indians. |
| Venkateshwara Hatcheries has already launched its ready-to-eat Venky's chicken in assorted gravies. Now, the Rs 788-crore Godrej Agrovet is test marketing its Real Good chicken dishes in Mumbai and Pune. On the table from Godrej are popular favourites like Chicken Makhani, Chicken Masala and Chicken Kheema Masala. |
| Is this a comeback strategy for the company after the bird-flu controversy? "Not at all, in fact, our sales have doubled. Plain chicken is a commodity market but value addition is the key in all businesses," says Balram Singh Yadav, general manager, Godrej Agrovet. |
| With two processing plants in Bangalore and Taloja in Maharashtra respectively, Yadav says that Godrej sells about 30,000 birds a day. |
| With these offerings in the Rs 50-crore ready-to-eat market, Godrej hopes to reach out to a new consumer segment, "With more young working people living alone, and couples leading hectic career oriented lives it is natural that they be offered something that makes at least one important aspect of their life hassle-free," says Yadav. |
| While Venky's products are semi-cooked, where the masala and chicken are frozen together and the pouch has to be dipped in hot water, Real Good's concoctions come as a kit. |
| A 550gm pack contains a processed chicken pouch and a masala packet. "It has to be cooked," explains Yadav. They retail at a price range between Rs 72 to Rs 78 and come in two offerings "" chilled and frozen. While the shelf-life for the former is three days, the frozen pack has a 30-day life span. |
| Yadav claims that with just two plants, it cannot go national soon. But there are plans to roll it out in Bangalore and Chennai. Its future platter will include Chicken Chettinad and Chicken Manchurian. |
| Today, Real Good chicken accounts for only 10 per cent of Godrej Agrovet's turnover. With this value addition, Yadav claims that it has the potential to touch 16 per cent in three years. |
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