The 58 year old Vandana Luthra, Padma Shri, is the founder of VLCC Health Care Ltd. a beauty and wellness conglomerate represented in Asia, the Gulf countries and Africa. She is also the chairperson of the Beauty & Wellness Sector Skill Council (B&WSSC), an initiative that provides training under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana scheme. Luthra was honored by the Government in 2013 with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for her contribution to the fields of trade and industry. She won the Asian Business Leaders Forum Trailblazer Award in 2012 and The Enterprise Asia Women Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2010. She has been ranked 26th in the distinguished annual Forbes Asia 50 Power Businesswomen in the APAC region (which includes Asia, Australia and New Zealand). She has also featured among the '50 Most Powerful Women in Business in India' for five years in a row - from 2011 to 2015.
VLCC under Vandana is constantly looking at leveraging its dominant position in the beauty and wellness domain. The company is currently in the advanced stages of acquiring a couple of companies in the nutraceutical space. Businesswise, VLCC is expected to close FY17 with a consolidated revenue of Rs 1,000 crore, growing from over Rs 800 crore in the last fiscal. Operations from India currently contributes around 60 per cent to the overall revenue, the rest comes from its international business. The company is also expanding its presence down south, particularly in the state of Tamil Nadu by doubling its centres from current 11.
"Tamil Nadu contributes close to 10 per cent to our total revenue and remains one of the fastest growing markets for us in India. This expansion plan is in line with our strategy to reach out to more customers as we strive to further strengthen our foothold in this burgeoning market," Luthra said earlier this month. The company also has two manufacturing units, one in Haridwar and another in Singapore. The brand has recently received requests to open VLCC in USA too.
Vandana plans to take VLCC public soon depending on the market sentiments. Last year, the company had filed a draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) to raise a around Rs 600 crore through an IPO. However, the IPO was not executed since the company felt that the market sentiments were not good. It is expected to refile the DRHP and will go for an IPO towards the middle or end of this year.
Vandana started VLCC in 1989, as a beauty and slimming services centre in Safdarjung Development Area, New Delhi, when her elder daughter was only three years old. Currently, VLCC operates in over 325 locations in 153 cities and 13 countries in South Asia, South East Asia, the GCC Region and East Africa. It employsover 4,000, including nutrition counsellors, medical professionals, physiotherapists, cosmetologists and beauty professionals. VLCC operates its products business through its subsidiary, VLCC Personal Care Limited in India and GVig in Singapore, which it acquired in September 2013. Presently, its GMP-certified manufacturing plants are situated at Haridwar, India and Singapore. The company manufactures and markets 170 hair care, skin care and body care products along with functional and fortified foods that are consumed in-house (in treatments and therapies at VLCC Wellness Centres). These products are also sold through 100,000 outlets in India, over 10,000 outlets across the GCC region and South East Asia as well as through e-commerce channels. VLCC, under Vandana, operates vocational training institutes across 73 campuses in 55 cities across India and one in Nepal. The institutes train nearly 10,000 students annually and offer courses in multiple disciplines.
BW Reporters
Ashish Sinha is an experienced business journalist who has covered FMCG, auto, infrastructure, tourism, telecom among several other beats. Ashish has keen interest in the regulatory scenario impacting different sectors. He writes on aviation, railways, post and telegraph, infrastructure, defence, media & entertainment, among a wide variety of other subjects.
