Osim India plans to go solo on expansion

Spurning an offer from the retail arm of Reliance, lifestyle product chain Osim India has forayed into Gujarat by launching its independent flagship store in Ahmedabad.

Osim India was exploring possibilities to collaborate with Reliance Retail for its sales and distribution network across the country but has now decided do it independently. The firm plans to go for a nation-wide expansion.

"Reliance Retail offered us 13 outlets and worked out blueprints for the distribution network in each of the cities that we are planning to enter in the near future. However, as a brand with an international appeal, we preferred to start off our own stores. This will ensure that we do not get lost among other brands," RN Grover, chairman, OSIM India told Business Standard, while adding that the collaboration was not completely ruled out for the future.

OSIM India has 47 outlets across the country and currently sells around 35 products. It plans to launch 3-4 products by the end of the year, including an eye massager that would be a unique product in the country. It plans to pump in around Rs 100 crore in its aim to touch 100 outlets in the next two years.

For its new lifestyle store in Ahmedabad, the firm has tied up with Saboori Collezione, an international collection of Spa furnishings.

Saboori Collezione will be foraying into the country for the first time via the Osim India store in Ahmedabad. It has lined up six new stores in the next couple of months, which are to come up in New Delhi, Pune and Chandigarh.

The store will stock Osim's healthy products line-up including massage products, nerve simulators, fitness products and muscle toning belts, diagnostic products, nebulisers as well as Saboori Collezione's range of computerised steam bathrooms, hydrotherapy massage bath tubs, sauna rooms, among others.

The store will also stock Osim's iDesire, which, priced at Rs 3.37 lakh, is reportedly the most expensive massage chair in the country.