A new state-of-the-art showroom is being opened by the company in the city on Friday. The cosmetic products on show are being displayed in India for the first time by the company. Company officials say that Chennai was chosen as the first retail outlet for sale of the products because the target is high-end customers and Chennai, apparently, is stocked with them.

The Relent retail outlet in Chennai will showcase a range of skin care and make-up products of the company at prices ranging from Rs 1,150 to Rs 3,680.

Targeted at the elite, these products will be available only at the showroom unlike in Japan where the products are sold through the distribution network, Ms Christine Mastica, company vice-president, said at a press conference here on Thursday. "We are eyeing only eight per cent of the elite in the city who account for nearly 10 per cent of the city's population", she said. By March 2001 the company is expecting to sell products worth Rs 80 lakh.