Actors Rakul Preet and Jackky Bhagnani are continuing their partnership in the field of entrepreneurship, collaborating with Invision Brands to bring global brands including easyGym, 5àsec and Blenz Coffee to India. Invision operates as part of the Franchise India Group.
The actors, along with Gaurav Marya, Chairman, Franchise India Group, made the announcement at a special launch event held in Mumbai. The partnership is expected to roll out the three brands – easyGym, a fitness chain from the UK-based easyGroup recognised for its modern gyms and accessible pricing, 5àsec, the French textile care and dry-cleaning brand, Blenz Coffee, the Canadian café brand from Vancouver, popular for its handcrafted beverages – across major Indian cities through a franchise network.
In a conversation with HT following the official announcement, actors Rakul Preet and Jackky Bhagnani, and Franchise India Chairman Gaurav Marya, spoke about what drew them to the venture, the vision behind it, and the opportunities they see in India’s growing lifestyle and wellness sectors. They further highlighted how the partnership aims to create new avenues for first-time entrepreneurs through the franchise model.
At the outset, would you like to elaborate on this venture and tell us about the brands that we will be seeing in India as part of it?
Marya: This is about Jackky and Rakul investing into InVision. InVision is a platform or a company which is bringing global brands to the Indian subcontinent, Gulf countries and Southeast Asia.
So we announced three brands. One is 5àsec, which is the world’s largest dry cleaning company, comes from France, runs in 40 countries, 2,000 stores, by far the largest company with 60 years of history.
The second brand we’re bringing in is easyGym, which is a part of easyGroup from Europe and runs gyms in London and Paris. We already opened up the first one in NCR, which is operational in Model Town. And then the third is Lenz Coffee, which comes from Canada, again a 33-year-old brand, very well known and established in Canada.
So we’re very excited at Franchise India, we are super excited to have them (Rakul and Jackky) as partners because they both not only just believe in these three concepts, but they are true entrepreneurs, very committed to building businesses as co-founders and work like that.
What is the one part that piqued your interest – was it personal or professional? If it is something that is personal, what is it that made you invest your time and believe in it?
Jackky: I think for all three it’s personal, and I’ll tell you why. I’ve lost 75 kgs, so for me, working out in the right environment is like taking a shower. If I don’t work out, then I feel like I’ve not showered. It’s that second nature to me now.
Coffee, that’s the only vice I have, I drink a lot of coffee. So as soon as I heard about Lenz Coffee and the blends which they have, we were very, very excited. And for 5àsec, we all send our stuff for laundry, but when we heard the statistics – that India’s market is two and a half lakh crores, out of which 95% is unorganized. So there’s a huge scope for someone like 5àsec to come in and do a billion dollar valuation.
5àsec might be bringing in a relatively new concept. But for cafes and lifestyle, the market is already very crowded. So what do you think is the gap that these international brands would be filling?
Marya: I mean, if you look at all three categories, for per capita consumption in India, we are the lowest and we feel that there is still a big opportunity out there. If you look at just the coffee space, coffee is directly proportional to the Infra story of India. India has 240 airports, we’re building another 100.
So just travel retail, there will be 340 airports. And so in Blenz, we are doing all travel retail, we’re doing corporate infrastructure, we’re doing capital locations like campuses or hospitals and the likes of them. And then we’ll also do high street.
Similarly, in gyms, there is not so much, only the large company which is now owned by Tata. We are the second or the third largest player in the same space. So we feel that there’s not much competition. As far as national brands are concerned, we have only four brands in India, in the fitness space. And there’s still a big wide market open.
Rakul, you have already co-founded a brand. We see a lot of celebrities stepping into entrepreneurship. Why do you think you’re stepping into the lifestyle and wellness space at this point, what pushed you towards it?
Rakul: I think the first time I ventured into entrepreneurship was back in 2015. Films are my first love, but I’ve always been someone who’s believed that why should you do only one thing? And when I met Jackky, I think he’s also individually been an investor and both of us have the same mind, the process of investing or doing partnerships in the fields that we’re passionate about.
Now, why is it important? Well, it’s passion and people who know us know that we’re very wellness driven to begin with. If we can have that small impact on society by bringing that change, India is shifting towards wellness. I think the way the youth and that shift that’s happening right now, especially post the pandemic is very evident.
I think this is why when you said that it is a crowded market, I don’t think it is as compared to the population that we have. So it’s a great space to grow in.
And we are absolutely very, very passionate about it. He’s lost 75 kilos. I’m an army girl. Fitness has always been a way of life. Both of us are coffee lovers.
Also, the spending ability is increasing and people are buying expensive clothes. There is no organized sector to sort of get your laundry done. So I think the consumer market is absolutely changing in the way they see things.
What is the rollout plan for these brands and can we see them in tier two and tier three cities also?
Marya: We are starting from a tier two city, which is Chandigarh. Blends Coffee will open first in Chandigarh and we chose that city because we feel that it also appreciates lifestyle. But we’ll go to all cities, all major cities, all leading shopping malls of India.
5àsec is opening next month in Hyderabad in Jubilee Hills so this is a state of art location. easyGym has already started. We feel that between these three brands, 250 locations will open up in the first five years. So that’s a good rollout, but one by one. And each location also has to sustain and also to give good service to end customers.
For local and first-time entrepreneurs, how do you think this will create more opportunities?
Jackky: The way the youth of India is thinking today, the 20-year-olds are way more aware of what they want to do, what they don’t want to do. Everyone would prefer if we could be an entrepreneur rather than do a nine to six job. All the brands, which Invision Brands is bringing will give birth to a lot of young entrepreneurs.
And I feel that Mr. Marya and Rakul and me, we come from a belief that while making a lot of wealth, if we can do well for the country, that’s the lethal combination we want to build.
For Rakul and Jackky, why did you choose to partner with Invision? What drew you to partner with them?
Rakul: I think we’re both believers that it’s always the person over anything else. Our interactions with Mr. Gaurav have been very, very exciting and I think the passion that he brings into anything that he does and his, you know, obviously history of the work that he’s done and his Franchise India has done. So I think all of that together, interesting conversations, passion driven thoughts led to this.
These are established international brands. How do you think these global brands will adapt to the preferences of Indian consumers while retaining their own identity?
Marya: All three brands which we have chosen are fit for India as they are globally, because our Indian customer is also very aware. We opened up Easy Gym. It has the best equipment, best in class use matrix. And similarly, when we’re doing coffee, we will have the best blends and probably roasted in India. We have chosen roasting in India, we want to be also offering Indian coffee.
With 5àsec, we have the best technology. We have the number one fabric care company.
So we understand fabrics. So we feel that consumers who are looking for a high quality service, there will be some feedback on further adaptability for making it even more inclusive. But we’ll continue to bring those changes.