Be U Salons: One of the Fastest Growing Chain in North India to Open 100 More Outlets by FY-18

Initiated with a penchant to transform the salon world, our journey to establish Be U Salons has been an enriching endeavor. What began as a thought has now truly nurtured with over 25+ salons across Delhi NCR, we are on an expansion spree already. Planning to open over 100 outlets by year end, our team has evolved and realized the sheer importance of dynamic culture that is rooted in the startup world.

Like every other start-up, we went through our own share of hiccups but the determination, strong will and sheer perseverance kept us going.

Be U Salons, the brainchild of serial entrepreneur Vikas Johari, which was a faraway dream until he joined hands with the twin warriors Jigyasa Gupta and Shailendra Nagvani. The latter duo were working on a CRM ERP SAAS solution called Growbiz that allowed salon owners to manage each and every aspect of their business on the go.It was later acquired by Gingerpan Swapcart Pvt. Ltd. and henceforth Be U Salon’s journey began.

BWDisrupt interacted with Vikas Johari, founder of Be U Salons to know more about his plans with the startup:

Edited Excerpts-

How is your chain of salons unique and different from existing ones?
We aim to disrupt the salon industry with the help of technology, operations, training expertise and intelligent & flat pricing.Be U Salons offer standardized high quality & hygienic services at a wallet friendly price for the Indian consumer. Customers can expect standardized menus, affordable prices, well trained professionals, well known branded products, clean and hygienic environment at each of our Salons.We are excited to solve the problems of one of the oldest and largest profession on this planet - through technology.

What are your monetization model?
We aim to increase & grow the revenue of our salon partners by implementing our model and strategies and charge a small percentage of the total revenue.

What are your traction details?
We currently have 25 outlets operating across Delhi-NCR and services approximately 300 customers per day and till date we have serviced over 20,000 customers.

What are kindly explain future plans and marketing plans?
We plan to become the fastest growing salon chain in North India and then expand our horizon to different parts of the country. We plan to have more then 100 outlets by March 2018 and aim at servicing 3,00,000 customers by year end. We wish to disrupt the price points and setting market rates, bench mark in salon industry.

In marketing sphere, we have totally changed the face of salon operations. To give you an example, at a good Italian restaurant, you get complementary bread basket, similarly in Salons threading should be for free. Also, we are the first ever salon chain offering Global color at Flat Rs. 2000 and Keratin at Flat Rs. 3500, so we believe is the best form of marketing we are doing.

Share what were the initial challenges you faced and the market size & opportunity you are looking at?
As per the data survey by one of the biggest hair product company, India has over 3,00,000 salons with a business turnover of approx 40,000 crore per annum. We further researched that around 90% of the Indian salon industry comprises of standalone outlets, where most of them suffer from lack of a back-end infrastructure, standardization, technological automation, intelligent pricing, branding and marketing, amongst many others. We are here to provide a support ecosystem to bring them out of the crisis.

Today, customers expect a certain quality and pricing, at multiple levels, but finds it difficult to find a match due to the extremely unorganized and unexpected nature of this industry; Be U aims to mediate this gap. We wish to create a brand which fills the unexpectedness between the consumers and the salon owners, via trust, training, intelligent pricing and technology.