Kaya plans to invest Rs 25-30 cr on new format retail stores

Marico's beauty and wellness arm Kaya plans to invest Rs 25-30 crore in new retail format, expanding the clinics, improving technology and repositioning the brand as total skincare solution, a top company official has said.

"Kaya has been EBITDA positive over the last two quarters. A lot of these decisions depend on balance between driving growth and near-term profitability," Kaya Chief Executive Officer Ajay Pahwa said.

The company, which was launched in 2002, plans to introduce smaller format stores that will essentially merchandise the Kaya products and offer a few services like skin analysis among others, he said.

On Kaya's plans to break-even by 2013, he said, "Break- even will largely depend on how quickly we want to grow our new format".

He said, "We will invest between Rs 25-30 crore for new retail format, expanding the clinics, improving technology and repositioning the brand as total skincare solution".

By the end of this fiscal, the company plans to open a handful of new store formats that will have a broad range of products and deliver a limited range of services, he said.

"The way we look at it is the second format, it is a smaller format, will allow us to further accelerate the participation in the market in not only in metro cities but will provide us the road map to grow in Tier-II and Tier-III cities in future. It will allow us to penetrate the market better," Pahwa said.

Pahwa said the contribution from the products to the revenues have increased to 25 per cent from the earlier 20 per cent.

Kaya is the wholly-owned subsidiary of Marico and currently operates 110 outlets across India, the Middle East, Malaysia and Bangladesh.

"This year we will open four to eight stores, which will be a combination of old and new stores," Pahwa said.

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