Dr. Chytra Anand, the renowned Bangalore based dermatologist, cosmetologist and trichologist needs no introduction. She’s as well known for her Kosmoderma Skin Hair and Body Clinics, as she is as a speaker in leading global conferences, and of late, as the founder of SkinQ range of skincare products. StyleSpeak had the opportunity to meet her at the launch of her 1st Kosmoderma Clinic in Mumbai.
Sandhya Chipalkatti: Congratulations on opening your 1st Clinic in Mumbai! What took you so long to come here?
There is a time for everything, and it takes time for things to fall into place. We feel now is the right time to open in Mumbai. We wanted to make sure that we have the patient base, the retention and the customer satisfaction and to have all this it takes time. I believe in growing slowly, sustainably and profitably. Quality takes time and for us quality is more important than anything. Now that all the other clinics in Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi are stable, we found the time right to venture into Mumbai, because Mumbai wouldn’t just be one clinic – we probably will have 3 to 5 clinics.
That will give you a good presence across Mumbai
Yes, and at Kosmoderma, we have a wide array of cosmetic procedures; we are a cosmetic dermatology clinic chain. We have skin, hair and body services and offer more than 600 plus variety of treatments that we offer as a group. But here, we are starting with what we actually need in Mumbai. One of the things we mainly do is a lot of R & D local to the place we want to launch in. So, if you take a look at our service menu, you will never see the same services listed at different cities necessarily. There will certainly be some bread-and-butter services, but there will be a lot of services that we have developed for specifically that market, for the environmental conditions of that market, skin type of that market.
Mumbai is West India and West India is very different from the South which is very different from North India. So, it takes time to do R&D and develop services for a market ….and we are ready for Mumbai now! We already have 7 clinics in Bengaluru and 1 in Chennai and recently opened Delhi – Mumbai is our 10th.
Do we get to see more of you since you have a clinic in Mumbai now?
I believe in team work and a strong team is important than a single person. Our team here is very well trained and they will be handling the clinic. But I will be up here once a month initially, to support them. Eventually, I will fade and out and stay (put) at Lavalle Road in Bengaluru.
We have some Mumbai clients who come to Bengaluru to see me, but now that we have opened, they are very happy that they can see me right here.
In what way do you expect Mumbai to be different from Bengaluru?
I think it is the Patient cohort – patient population itself, it is very different. It is not about the spending capacity, but the intent to spend. Also, the kind of influences that they have had. In Mumbai if you see, it is just a normal thing to go to a skin doctor today – just like how you go to your salon or hairstylist…. you have a skin doctor that go to regularly. It is still not there in Bangalore, and even in Delhi, it still not as much as in Mumbai. In Delhi there is a certain set of people that does it, but still not from the health perspective. In Mumbai the customers are more mature. They are already aware of these procedures, they are OK to have them, and also open to talk about them to a certain level. It’s a maturing market.
This awareness is still not there in Delhi, definitely not there in Chennai and just about starting in Bangalore.
