A Renowned brand that deals in slimming, beauty and wellness products, which is also a leading player in beauty, health and wellness industry in South Asia and Middle East and has successfully become a household name among many, Dr. G.S. Kocchar, Head of Franchise Development and Operationsod VLCC Healthcare Ltd, in talks with Franchise Mart..

Q) From the time of its inception and now, VLCC has become a household name in India. How was the experience of brining up the brand name in the market?
One of the leading players in the Wellness domain in South Asia and Middle East, VLCC began its journey in 1989 with a Transformation Centre in New Delhi, India at a time when the Indian Wellness market was still at a nascent stage and the idea of combing fitness and beauty as an approach to holistic wellness was a completely new paradigm.

The driving force behind the brand is its Founder & Mentor, Mrs. Vandana Luthra. A well-recognized and respected entrepreneur, her vision and zeal for promoting health and beauty as well as empowerment of women is well acknowledged.

VLCC’s services business currently span across over 300 locations in 121 cities in 16 countries, including India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Malaysia, UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait where it has direct company-owned operations. VLCC is widely recognized for its scientific weight loss solutions and its therapeutic beauty approach.

Having served over 10 million customers to date, the VLCC Group manages the largest chain of slimming, beauty and fitness centres in South Asia and the Middle East; it runs Asia’s largest network of vocational education academies in beauty and nutrition; and also manufactures and retails one of the most comprehensive range of herbal/natural skin, hair and body care products which are retailed through more than 75,000 outlets.

VLCC Group serves as an umbrella for all its other brands – VLCC Slimming, Beauty & Fitness, VLCC Personal Care, VLCC Natural Sciences, VLCC Institute of Beauty & Nutrition, VLCC Day Spa and VLCC Beauty Zone.

Q) What fascinated you to hold up franchise route for the expansion? Do you feel it is a suitable way for a business to expand?
Franchising is a wonderful and revolutionary concept for business expansion and has been followed by companies across product manufacturing, distribution logistics through to service providing sectors for expansion and capturing of market share. It is said that ‘most any business concept can be expanded through franchise route – and hence today you find a myriad of businesses – eg Home Cleaning, Food and Restaurant, Educational Services, HR Services, Product Manufacturing, Automotive Services, and so on and so forth – expanding not just at the national level but globally through franchising.

VLCC certainly finds franchise route to be eminently suitable for expansion, for capturing greater market share, for servicing its customers in far and wider geographical territories and for international business expansion.

Q) What are the challenges that you have faced so far in your journey with VLCC? What methods you have adopted to overcome it?
Biggest Challenge I would say is to zero- in on a right franchise partner, and once this is ensured, rest of the picture more or less falls in place automatically.

While we do check and study the profiles of our present partners to understand the profile of a good partner for us, and then try matching this ideal profile with the profiles of the applicants for a new franchise. I would say we have been little more successful in screening the new applicants presently.

Q) What are the requirements you have it for a franchisee, in terms of characteristics, area and investment?

Presently we have two different formats for franchising.

VLCC Center – the bigger format – 1500 Sq Ft to 2000 Sq Ft Space and total investment ranging from 40 to 45 Lakhs.

VLCC Salon – the smaller format – 1000 Sq Ft Space and total investment ranging from 22 to 28 Lakhs.

Q) To maintain a healthy relationship with your franchisees, what training and support you provide to them?
The support and set up guidance to any franchisee that comes on board starts from the day we sign either an MoU or the Agreement with the franchise.

First step in this direction is to help them with their finalization of site, then the guidance on the interior project work, followed by guidance on all the purchases to be done for the upcoming outlet, support to them while they source and recruit the staff which is followed by a thorough and in-depth training for the staff. Further we provide them with the designs, and these are customized designs, for the various external and internal brandings & signages and for local promotions. And finally they are given the proprietary software for computerized billing to be undertaken at the center.

Our dedicated Op Support Team would hand hold all the franchisees at the stage of getting the outlet inaugurated and be operational.

The hand holding, the guidance, the support, the mentoring then continues throughout the whole term of the franchising.

Q) Is there any advice you would like to share with the aspiring entrepreneurs?
To an aspiring entrepreneur I would recommend that he / she should do a great deal of self – introspection, weigh all pros and cons of embarking on this course of action, take counsel from someone senior in the field and then take the step towards being an entrepreneur.

The journey can have, and most likely, will have surprises and challenges along the way, though one can also be sure that the end results could be very satisfying and fulfilling.

Q) What do you think what is the scope of franchising in your field?
Immense scope. For all different structures and modalities of franchising. There is scope for single unit, multi unit, area development and master franchising. And then there is scope for cross border or international franchising as well. And we have been into most of these arrangements already.

Q) What are the future plans for VLCC?
VLCC plans to expand and grow through both the company owned units and through franchising as well. As already stated above we have two different formats for franchising presently and we plan to have many more franchised centers and franchised salons of VLCC in the near future, and we also plan to have some international franchises too.