CAD design, has taken a strategic control over the operations of Naturals owned by Groom India Salon & SPA

It is the most unlikely business marriage between technology and beauty. CADD Centre, which runs a large network of training centres to train people on CAD design, has taken a strategic control over the operations of Naturals, said to be India’s largest beauty & wellness chain, owned by Groom India Salon & Spa.

The day-to-day operations of around 270 Naturals’ outlets in Tamil Nadu and Kerala have come under the control of CADD Centre from Sunday, October 1. Soon, such outlets in rest of South India too will come under CADD control, even as the management of Groom India focuses on expanding its footprint to other states in its quest to become a pan-India beauty chain.

With 600 Naturals outlets, Groom India today owns the country’s largest beauty and wellness chain. But, it is still south-centric, with meagre presence up north. To overcome this and have a pan-Indian presence, the company has set a target to have 3,000 outlets by 2020.

C K Kumaravel, MD & Co-Founder, Groom India Salon & Spa Pvt Ltd told “While we were looking for partners for quite some time, we have finally identified one who understands the Indian turf. It’s a big leap for us,” he added. Founded in 1987, CADD Centre at present operates 730 training centres for CAD (Computer Aided Design), CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) and CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) in about 24 countries. While about 700 of them are in India, the company ushered in the franchisee option for its partners way back in 1995. Groom India has established its 600-outlet strong chain in about 15 years. Naturals so far used technology to run business, but not technology to drive business. In the case of Ola and Uber, taxi is incidental and technology is the prime move. This strategic tie-up between us and Naturals is something like Uberising the salon and wellness business. We will develop different software applications and CRM tools to drive business to Naturals’ outlets across regions.