Indivision, a private equity fund promoted by Future Capital, the financial services arm of the Future Group (Pantaloon Retail) has invested Rs. 50 crore in VLCC and will actively participate in adding value to the distribution and brand positioning of VLCC. “Witnessing a compound annual growth rate (CARG) of 40 per cent for the last five years, VLCC’s alliance with Indivision comes at a time when the company is investing huge sums into opening of franchisees and international centres and venturing into the personal care and health food segment through retail outlets,” Sandeep Ahuja, managing director, VLCC, told IMAGES.
In the organized slimming services business, the company currently occupies 40 per cent of the market share. The alliance makes sense since VLCC’s retail arm is set to benefit from Future Group’s real estate and malls and its own retail outlets as well. In fact, VLCC is hoping to provide Future Group’s retail outlets with staff trained at its own institutes. With 100 centres in 52 cities across India and seven locations in the UAE, the company plans to meet its target of 300 centres within India and 28 centres in the GCC countries by 2009-10. VLCC’s strong back-end operation, expanding overseas business and concept of health food is what attracted Indivision into investing in the company. In the pipeline for VLCC are new brands that include a medi-spa, more institutes, retail of health foods VLCC Alive and more R&D centres.
