L’Occitane, the French luxury skincare and beauty products retailer, has signed a partnership deal with Devi Resorts to enter the growing Indian spa market. The partners plan to set up at least three spas co-branded as Devi Spa by L’Occitane in several luxury hotels in the country including the Devi Garh Palace in Udaipur. “L’Occitane will provide the intellectual property, technical expertise, protocol training and marketing support in the development and execution of the spas, while Devi Resorts will provide the physical space in its hotels for the spas. While the spas will be very luxurious, it will match L’occitane’s image of affordable luxury,” says Guillaume Geslin, India Country Manager, L’Occitane.
L’Occitane, which has 1,500 boutiques across 90 countries, forayed into the spa market about four years ago. Currently, it has about 40 spas across the world. It runs spas across three concepts – day spas on high streets, inside stores called petit spas and Spa by L’occitane in hotels and resorts. Its flagship spas are in Brazil, Paris and Hong Kong. L’Occitane re-entered Indian retail market in June last year through a 51:49 joint venture with Kolkata-based Beauty Concepts after ending a eight-year-old distribution deal with Ravi Chawla’s Ravissant. At present, there are three L’Occitane boutiques in the country; all located in Delhi.
