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, senior company officials said.

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 supports in the development and execution of the spas, while Devi Resorts will provide the physical space in its hotels for the spas,” says Guillaume Geslin, India country manager, L’Occitane.

The other two spas will include 20,000-sqft facilities at the upcoming Devi Ratn Resort in Jaipur and the new Rasa Resort in Jaipur, which will have ultra-luxury tents with private spa pavilions stand adjacent to the 400-year-old Amer Fort and a wildlife reserve.

Mr Geslin refused to disclose the investment plans or other details of the deal, but said he is confident of a $6-8 million turnover in two years from these three spas.

“While the spas will be very luxurious, it will match L’occitane’s image of affordable luxury,” he said.
The e 612-million French firm has awarded the master franchisee for the spas to Darpan Sanghvi, who runs Sanghvi Brands, a privately held company that aspires to have India’s first complete wellness brand portfolio ranging from spas to grooming ateliers to fitness and sports concepts.

The deal with L’Occitane will help Devi Resorts upgrade its facilities and have international experts in line with consumer demand, said Rajnish Sabharwal, president of Devi Resorts.

“Our philosophy matched L’Occitane’s, of tradition, respect and social responsibility plus their efforts to use local fruits and flowers to create exclusive treatments for the resort,” he said.

L’Occitane, which has 1,500 boutiques across 90 countries, forayed into the spa market about four years ago and today 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 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.