How about pampering yourself?

After services, Marico's skin care venture, Kaya, is getting into products to complete the offering.

Three years back, fast moving consumer goods major Marico Industries, the makers of Parachute coconut oil and Saffola, entered uncharted territory.

It forayed into the skin care services segment to offer dermatological skin treatments. Now, with 32 Kaya Skin Clinics and a turnover of Rs 20 crore, Kaya has launched a range of skin care products to complement the services it provides.

Clearly, Kaya is looking at end-to-end solutions. "We realised that, because our services need to complement in-home applications, consumers were asking for a one- stop solution," says Rakesh Pandey, chief executive officer, Kaya Skin Clinics.

Their range of products includes a skin lightening complex, skin repair complex, lighten & smooth under-eye gel, daily moisturising sunscreen, recharging night creme, soothing cleansing gel and revitalising tonic priced between the Rs 400- 900 range for 50 ml.

As more and more urban Indians worry about the quality of their skin, outfits like Kaya are seeing a steady flow of customers. In fact, Kaya has seen interesting results in the southern market.

While the Mumbai and Delhi outlets see only 15-18 per cent of customers that are male, 30 per cent of the customers in the southern market "" Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore "" are male.

The trend of caring for one's skin is one of the reasons why the skin care market has been seeing a lot of action in recent years with players like L'Oreal (along with its sister brand Garnier), Lakme, and others introducing a range of premium products on a regular basis.

However, Pandey says that a plethora of products doesn't help. "A lot of consumers are saying they are confused about what's available, its correct usage, feasibility for their skin type and applications. So we thought that we would introduce a range that would be simple and address all their needs," he says.

Though currently only about 10 per cent of Kaya's revenues comes from products, Pandey and team are expecting it to go upto 20 per cent by the end of the next fiscal.

"There's a clear demand because everything is explained by qualified dermatologists on an individual basis keeping in mind the treatment they are undergoing," says Pandey.

However, the product range is only available at Kaya outlets and there are no plans to extend the range through the regular retailer network.

Says Pandey, "These aren't products that a normal retailer can sell. Also there's a very specific target audience for it." The ingredients and formulations for the products are imported from France, UK and USA while part of the manufacturing and packaging is done in India through third party manufacturers.

Pandey dismisses competition. "We're not really competing with other brands because our products are part of an entire solution and there's a restricted manner of sale. So it's really our own customers that we are targeting." The question is whether this approach will increase Kaya's revenues.