Return
to Story Page
To print: Select File and then Print from your
browser's menu
Ravi Shekhar Pandey
New Delhi, Jan 3: Vandana Luthra, who has successfully turned her expertise in beauty care and fitness into a multi-crore enterprise, has now another feather in her cap. Luthra's fitness chain, Vandana Luthra Curls and Curves (VLCC), is in the process of setting up a chain of health cafes to provide low calorie food. In another accomplishment which speaks volumes of the success of Indian entrepreneurship, she is also in the process of signing up with a number of corporate houses, including multinational majors, a health and beauty care regime for their employees. Companies which have evinced interest in VLCC's fitness programmes include foreign and domestic airlines.
Talking about the proposed chain of cafes which is expected to come up sometime next year, Luthra says that the chain will be of first of its kind in the country. "The cafes will fulfill the needs of people who want to go in for low calorie diet but cannot go for it because they often have to eat outside," she claims, adding that the cafeswill strive to provide world class services with emphasis on quality and cost-effectiveness.
Luthra says that theambience of all the VLCC cafes will be one of cool comfort and plush interiors with each centre manned by a contingent of specialists who will strive to deliver high quality service.
She states that the cafes will be manned by highly trained professionals and diet control experts. To begin with, the first cafe will come in Noida some time early in 1999.
Luthra is optimistic that given the growing keenness among the people -- particulary the upper and middle classes to remain fit and healthy-the cafes will turn out to be a successful enterprise. Besides, she claims that the cafes will also help in weeding out the fakes which now exist in the market cheating people in the name of low calorie diet.In another innovative effort, VLCC has designed a package for corporate houses under which for an annual sum of Rs 12 lakh, 26 employees can go through a specified number of health and beautysittings, including weight loss and bio-lifting of the face. For companies, this will work out to Rs 3,486 per employee per month. "Given the variety of programmes offered, the package is cost-effective," Luthra says while explaining the curiousity shown by the corporate houses in the package. She adds that the package is aimed at helping employees fight fitness related problems often caused by the vagaries of a fast-paced corporate life.
Apart from the low calorie cafes to be spread across the country, VLCC is introducing a range of cosmetic products in India under the German brand name of Cellotherm. It will also open nursing homes as an extension of VLCC centres. A beauty-care teaching academy, in association with a foreign collaborator, is also in the offing. She has already drawn up a plan to start chain of finishing schools along the lines of those in Switzerland and has even roped in the famous actress Zeenat Aman for the purpose. VLCC already has a beauty care teaching school in New Delhi whichimparts training to budding beauticians.
"All these are aimed at making VLCC a diversified health and beauty care group and achieving a turnover of Rs 100 crore for the company in the next five years." VLCC's projected turnover for this financial year is Rs 18 crore.
The company, which runs a chain of slimming and fitness centres spread across 20 cities all over India, has tied up with Feedback Ventures for expanding its network by setting up VLCC centres in 50 more cities in the next couple of years.
VLCC is the sole Indian distributer of the internationally renowned Cellotherm equipment used for slimming and weight control. VLCC has already introduced a range of therapeutic herbal products to rejuvenate the skin and hair under the brand name Saffron.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
------------------------------------------------------------
This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
------------------------------------------------------------