Wig-o-mania, a UK-based firm specialising in wigs and hair pieces, is in expansion mode.

After opening its first store in Chennai, it has set up a store in Hyderabad and also its first launched in the franchise mode. It plans to set up a chain of stores in India through the franchise mode.

Andrew Fleming, Deputy High Commissioner, British High Commission Hyderabad, who was present during the store inaugural here today, hoped that a number of other retailers from the UK would look to setting up more such stores in India and Hyderabad.

“Already we have the likes of Marks & Spencer and hope Wig-o-mania's success will attract more retailers,” he said.

“I have seen the popularity such products have during my tenure in Nigeria, both from those who have them for fashion and those who use them for personal care,” he said.

Hasnain Mohamedali, CEO of Wig-O-Mania, said, “We started our journey with a single store in the UK in 2006 and entered Chennai with our first store in 2016. Now we have embarked on expansion, as there is demand from corporate customers, the medical community, as also others.”

“This is the first store set up by us through a franchise and soon a second one will come up in Coimbatore, being set up by a doctor. We have also appointed a franchise partner for Bengaluru, where they have indicated setting up a chain of seven stores,” he said.

While 80 per cent of the business comes from corporate customers, including salons, hospitals and the doctor community, the company expects there is latent demand from personal buyers as well, both for fashion as also for personal care.

The pieces are developed using hair sourced from Eastern Europe, which is treated, designed and developed at the manufacturing facilities in the UK. These come as easy-to-fix solutions for necessity wearers, both men and women, who suffer from hair loss due to various medical and non-medical reasons such as chemo, alopecia and hormonal changes.

“While people walking into a store and buying is common in the West, they do not have access to similar solutions here. We expect to change this,” he said.

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