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Beauty is becoming pricier. Marico's Rs 250-crore skin care services arm Kaya Skin Clinics will be raising prices by 8-10 per cent from April 1.
Mr Suvodeep Das, Marketing Head, Kaya Skin Clinic, said the price hike comes after almost a decade of being in business. “Costs have been rising which includes rental and manpower. We have been introducing new technologies and services across our 83 clinics and most of these will now cost more,'' he said.
Significantly, Kaya has decided to raise prices without waiting for the Budget, and seeing whether service tax rates which may change.
As Mr. Das explained, “The service tax would in any case be over and above the prices that we charge. The service tax at 10.3 per cent has remained unchanged over the past two years.'' Kaya is now urging its customers to take advantage of the current prices and drop in at its clinics before March 31.
The average price of a single treatment at Kaya (anti aging, hair removal or enhancements) ranges between Rs 1,600 and Rs 1.800.
Despite being in the business for a decade, Kaya is yet to make profits. “Retail is a business for the long haul. While we have been expanding rapidly, there have been issues like availability of retail space and high rentals. We have yet to break even and have not fixed a time frame for it,'' said Mr. Das.
He ruled out extending the Kaya brand into new areas. Some time back it did try to enter the weight loss segment with Kaya Life but withdrew after the prototype failed to take off. “Today there is enough headroom for growth in the skincare segment in India and there are no plans to extend the Kaya brand,'' said Mr. Das.
According to Mr Das, more young people are today availing of Kaya's anti-aging skin care services, and the target age group is starting at 18 years. Men too are getting into the grooming game.
Kaya's competitors in this space are brands like Evolve (from the Yash Birla Group) as well as individual dermatologists.
Growing at a CAGR of 14 per cent, Kaya has entered new markets like the Middle East. It also acquired a Singapore-based company(Derma Rx) to beef up its products offerings. “The Derma Rx range of products has already been added to our Kaya advanced range of skincare products. The Kaya branded products will continue to be sold at the Kaya clinics and currently contribute about 20 per cent of the revenues,'' said Mr Das.
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