Unisex beauty salon chain Naturals Beauty has entered into an agreement with Bharti Retail Private Limited, which joined hands with global retail brand Walmart for its retail foray, to set up salons inside easyday Market stores, which are compact hypermarket stores operated by Bharti Retail.
Confirming the development, a Bharti Retail spokesperson said, “In order to serve our customers better, Bharti Retail sub-leases space in easyday Market stores.,To this effect, we have sub-leased space to Naturals in some of our stores.”
It may be noted that Big Bazaar, the hypermarket format of Kishore Biyani-led Future Group, also house Star & Sitara, a shop-in-shop for wellness, beauty and salon.
CK Kumaravel, co-founder and managing director of Naturals, said that it was an important decision, which would help the company increase its presence beyond the southern markets.
Currently, Naturals has 130 salons, of which 124 are in south, while six are in non-southern markets including Pune, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar and Kolkata.
“We are starting the concept in three easyday Market stores – Vaishali in Delhi, Nasik and Aurangabad. Based on the success, we will expand further. Our aim is to be present in all the 250 easyday Market stores across the country,” Kumaravel said.
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The first store with 14 seats, spread over in 1300 sft at Vaishali, is expected to be rolled out by the middle of next month. All the stores will be owned by Naturals, he said.
Commenting on the company’s fund-raising plan, he said the company was looking at raising around Rs 100 crore from private equity and that discussions were in an advanced stage. “The money will be utilised to support the company’s plan to expand its number of salons to 1,000 in the next three years and become a Rs 1,000-crore brand,” he said.