Vandana Luthra has built a Rs 1,000 crore weight-loss and beauty business, and is now ready to take her eponymous company, VLCC, public
Vandana Luthra knows how to make an entry. Clad in an ivory-hued dress, the businesswoman walks into a tiny conference room followed by an entourage of staff bearing trays laden with food. “Eat. It’s all healthy,” she urges guests, pointing to plates piled high with salad and falafel. She would know. After all, the 55-year-old Padma Shri awardee is the eponymous founder of VLCC (Vandana Luthra Curls and Curves), one of India’s best-known beauty and weight-loss brands.
When Forbes India met her, she was inaugurating the launch of a centre at New Friends Colony, south Delhi. This outlet is especially close to her heart: It marks a quarter of a century of VLCC’s presence in the wellness industry. “We completed 25 years on July 12,” says Luthra, pointing to a VLCC badge that she has pinned onto her dress. “I have grown from a daughter to a grandmother, and I’ve seen my business grow with me.”
The New Friends Colony centre is the 34th Delhi VLCC outlet and one of 300 in India and abroad. What started out as a standalone slimming clinic in Safdarjung in 1989 has evolved into a Rs 1,000-crore company with a presence in 16 countries, including Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, the UAE, Oman and Qatar. Luthra has given herself three to five years to reach an ambitious target of Rs 4,000 crore in revenues. She’s in a hurry to scale up because VLCC is getting ready for an initial public offering (IPO). “I can’t say when it will happen, but it will be soon,” she says.
Before going public, however, VLCC needs to strengthen its product portfolio and add more centres. The company describes itself as a slimming, fitness and beauty brand, but over the years, it has become much more: Business is divided between products (personal grooming, health foods and weight-loss supplements) and services (wellness centres and training institutes). Apart from spas and facials, and of course, weight loss programmes, VLCC’s clinics offer dermatological solutions to acne, microdermabrasion, Botox injections, and other such treatments.
VLCC has been on an acquisition spree over the past two years. In 2013—in a deal that’s believed to be a little less than Rs 200 crore—it acquired Singapore-based Global Vantage Innovative Group, which owns and operates three firms that manufacture and retail cosmetic products and solutions. Prior to that, it acquired Wyann International—which owned and operated a chain of 22 slimming and beauty outlets across Malaysia—for Rs 100 crore.
“Wyann is the third largest player in Malaysia, and we had 23 outlets overnight. Since then, we have scaled up to 26,” says Sandeep Ahuja, managing director and group CEO, VLCC.
Through these acquisitions, Luthra wants to expand VLCC’s portfolio and use the company’s distribution network to sell its products overseas. For this fiscal, the company has set aside Rs 200 crore for the expansion spree. The plan is to add 50-60 new VLCC clinics (national and international) within 18 months. Luthra also wants to increase the number of VLCC institutes from 65 to 85 during this period. (The institutes train people for careers in the beauty and wellness industry.)
“We are open to any mid-sized company that is favourable to us in the product or services space,” says Luthra, who is in talks with two international businesses—a dermatology products company and an Italian hair care brands.
At present, VLCC’s product business accounts for only 15 percent of the overall revenue. The bulk comes from its services business. However, this could change very soon.
It was around this time that she fell in love with Mukesh who was in the export business and married him at the age of 21. “We met at a Christmas party in Delhi. I was a homemaker for eight years after we got married. I had two daughters and devoted my time to them and the family. It was only when they were old enough that I decided to open my first VLCC centre, and for that, I took a Rs 3 lakh bank loan,” says Luthra.
(This story appears in the 31 October, 2014 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)