The entire world is turning towards India for Ayurveda- Arvind Varchaswi

The wellness industry is quite big and this is not a new discovery. With so many brands establishing themselves in its various branches, the market seems to keep on widening. In a conversation with Arvind Varchaswi, MD, Sri Sri Tattva, at the Franchise India 2017, he tells us the many verticals of the wellness industry his brand, Sri Sri Tattva, has established itself into and his experience at the Delhi Show 2017.

Kindly give us a brief about your brand.
Sri Sri Tattva is a brand that denotes integrity, quality and is also someone that delivers what it promises. We have our founder’s name in the brand, Sri Sri, which all the more brings in source credibility, whatever products we are offering have a certain quality in them. So, at Sri Sri Tattva, we believe in a little bit of a holistic approach for which we have our holistic model. We not only make medicines but we also have state of the art research facilities, colleges, hospitals, wellness centres, clinics etc. We have also, recently, forayed into FMCG and we also have other cosmetics vertical. We have also got into homecare and textiles. Last month, we launched our cosmetics brand called Shankara in India. So, this brand was more towards the US and also in the European region but now we have launched this high-end cosmetics brand here in India as well.

What trends can you see emerging in the Wellness industry?
We are certainly the front runners right now. There is a lot of enthusiasm and awareness towards the whole aspect of Ayurveda. The entire world is turning towards India for answers and also specifically for Ayurveda. So, if we look, everyone wants natural and wants to see what nature has to offer in terms of medicine and well being. So, Ayurveda is definitely the answer to it and at Sri Sri Tattva, we believe that whatever we bring across in terms of our natural products are of quality and are also effective. It’s important that Ayurveda is also standardised to a certain level and at our brand, we do that.

How important is franchising today for a brand to expand?
We find it extremely important which is why we have tied up with Franchise India. We have come out with three franchise models- Sri Sri Tattva Mart, Sri Sri Tattva Wellness Place and Sri Sri Tattva Homemade health. So, the mart is more like a shop where you come across FMCG products, cosmetics, home care, puja items etc. The Wellness Place has an Ayurveda doctor who checks your naadi as they also do naadi parisksha. There is a wellness trainer as well. So, there is a doctor who does both apart from telling you what you need to change. We also have various medicines in that. The third model, homemade health, have everything together. We are also going to launch our apparel as it is in the online segment right now. Apart from all this, we have also brought our brand, Shankara.

Kindly tell us about your franchise models on offer and share its specifications.
So, as I said, we have the mart, wellness place and homemade health format. We’ve always ensured that whatever franchise models people want to take, they are completely affordable. The financial models are also in budget. People can take them on and also enjoy the benefits from these wonderful products.

What are your expansion plans for the brand?
So, with Franchise India alone, we are sure to touch 1000 franchise stores within the next two years, as a minimum target. We’ll try to do much more but our minimum target would be to touch 1000 franchise stores in the next 1.5- 2 years.

How has been your experience at the Delhi Show 2017 so far?
I really find it extremely wonderful. I heard that there are more than 600 to 650 people presenting their franchise models here, which is, by far, one of the biggest in India. Apart from that, I have been told that the footfall of almost about 40,000 business people would be coming. So, I believe that the magnitude is huge and being a brand that is known the world over, we found it important to tie up with Franchise India to see how we can build in more franchise shops in India.