Hair care as a business has been a priority and it has grown by 11 per cent in this quarter which is largely driven by our growth in the transplant business, he said.
With 99 clinics in India and 24 in the Middle East under the name of Kaya Skin Clinic, Kaya Limited has reported a revenue growth of 1 per cent in its India business and 11 per cent from outside India in its Q2 results. In a chat with Moneycontrol, Rajiv Nair, CEO, Kaya Ltd, talks about the performance and prospects of his company in the Middle East.
Edited excerpts:
Can you break down your Q2 results?Kaya Limited posted consolidated revenue from operations of Rs 107.5 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2018, a growth of 6% over corresponding quarter in the previous year. The India business reported a revenue growth of 1 per cent and international business' revenue grew by 11 per cent over Q2 last year. Consolidated operating EBIDTA stood at Rs 3.2 crore for the quarter as compared to Rs 2.8 crore for the corresponding quarter the previous year. Consolidated profit after tax and minority interest for the quarter ended 30th September, 2018 is Rs 2.1 crore compared to Rs 1.7 crore for the corresponding quarter ended 30th September 2017.You have finally achieved PAT break-even. What do you think is the main reason?
There were certain heads of cost that we were looking at rationalising and making sure the fact that we keep control on them. The back office cost or the corporate cost came down by 16 per cent and is one of the reasons for achieving the PAT break even. At the same time we have also kept our clinic operation cost almost flat which helped in minimalising cost and increasing profitability.
The number of sessions the customers take at our clinic has gone up from 60,000 last quarter to 65,000.
Which segments were your top performers in this quarter?
Hair care as a business has been a priority and it has grown by 11 per cent in this quarter which is largely driven by our growth in the transplant business - a new offering. This service is offered in only three clinics in the country - Green Park in Delhi, Bandra in Mumbai and Indiranagar in Bengaluru.
Our product business has grown by 25 per cent over same period last year. This growth has also largely come through new channels that we have developed over the past one year. E-commerce grew by 90 per cent and distribution business has grown by 35 per cent over last year.
Give us an update about your business in the Middle East.
The Middle East market is going through a strategic shift. Macro factors have changed the market and we can see some new elements for customers, especially around taxation. But we are upbeat about the market and expect good numbers in the next quarter.
Tell us about new products launched or those in the pipeline.
We invested close to Rs 7 crore in renovating our clinics, which has boosted our capacity in some of the fast performing clinics go up by 15 per cent to 20 per cent. With renovation, we have also launched three new hair products - Root Regen, Dandruff Control and Vital Volume. This quarter, we will launch on Nykaa and also introduce a face mask range imported from Korea. We will also launch winter specific ranges.
Are you aggressively looking at expansion outside the Indian market?
We are not expanding to any new place but we will be on the look out to increase reach in the Middle East, where we have recently introduced new services to attract more customers. The two new services offered in that market are body contouring and hair care.
