Birla Lifestyle to focus on wellness

Birla Lifestyle, the newly formed division of the Yash Birla group, will focus on wellness and retail.

Yash Birla, chairman, said, "We will set up 19 spas in all metros by early 2007." These would be called Raih, with the first two coming up in Mumbai followed by Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata.

"We are also looking at setting up a grooming and lifestyle school in Mumbai," said Birla. In addition to this, the group is also looking at setting up a mall catering to all home needs by the end of the year ranging from interiors to hardware etc.

"We are in the process of identifying a suitable location in one of the metros and depending on the response to this, we will look at setting up more malls," said PVR Murthy, group finance director, Yash Birla Group.

The group has submitted an application to the High Court to merge six of the group companies with Shloka Infotech, which is a listed company and rechristen it as Birla Lifestyle. This change is likely to come into effect in the next two months.

Birla said that they will consider a secondary offering or a private placement to raise about Rs 30-40 crore at a later stage to fund this expansion. The group expects the turnover from this division to touch about Rs 75 crore in the next three years.

The compay is also setting up an art gallery called Birla Art Lifestyle as well as home accessory stores called Me. The group is also in talks with retailers to set up shop for their educational videos and books, aimed at schools children.

The travel arm, Viking travels will now also be more focussed towards corporate travel. Birla said that they are also looking at a collaboration with an international agency to promote medical and health tourism. A 500-bed hospital in Thane is expected to be ready soon.

The group is also considering merging TransAsia Carpets and Birla Electricals with Birla Lifestyle after a year. The group unveiled its new corporate logo, a conch, earlier this week.