From kitchen to cosmetics: Couple turns grandma’s age old rituals for self-care into luxury skincare brand

With many people in India and foreign countries gravitating towards chemical-free natural self-care products, scope to grow and flourish for startups operating in this segment has widened. One such homegrown luxury skin and hair care brand is Old School, founded with an aim to revive practices that ensured sustainable wellbeing for centuries. After receiving approval from two lakh customers and a seven-year long research and development phase, Old School is now scaling up. Wife-husband duo, Smita Vallurupalli (SV) and Shashank Kancharla (SK), co-founders of Old School Brindavanam, a naturopathy centre, and Old School Rituals, a luxury skin and hair care brand, talk to Bizz Buzz about their plans for both the brands

What drove your interest towards natural skin and hair care products?

Smita Vallurupalli (SV): I have always been curious about the ingredient that goes into a skin care brand. At my first scalable business venture, Bubbles, I was not that happy about using lot of chemicals or synthetic products. So, I decided to build my own range of products. In 2015-16, I created the first product for my daughter. Many others who used the same for their kids responded positively. And, that is how the story of Old School began as a tribute to my grandma and all ancestors. Old School is a bridge between generations that have lost connection.

Shashank Kancharla (SK): We have been in the beauty and personal care business from the last two decades with the launch of Bubbles, a luxury hair and beauty salon and spa. As we felt the need to introduce chemical-free products here, we introduced natural products from other international brands but logistics was a hurdle. Around seven years back we mulled on formulating our own range of chemical-free products. We roped in a formulator and Smita has also done her formulation course. After developing few we tested them across our salons. The 63 herb hair oil ritual was a big hit and many NRI’s were keen on buying these products. We have created 72 SKUs, of which 34 are on shelves. Some are used as part of service kits and some are for retail. Every product is certified by Ayush department and dermatological tested.

Talking of research, how is Old School backed by Science?

SV: Old School stands firm on skincare validated by modern science. There is lot of scientific research available on the use of ingredients, and extractions over these decades. The ingredient that worked well back in those days, as against the science that has developed over the years has been combined to build a very old school yet contemporary brand. For instance, we have red sandalwood powder coupled with salicylic, then there is Indian spices line with niacinamide, a natural extract and alternative for retinol. That is why I am stressing that Old School product line has natural ingredients married with scientific ingredients.

How did you finalise on the combination of ingredients?

SV: The combination of ingredients has gone through a cycle of trials before it was finalised. I really enjoyed curating the Indian spices line, here we have the extraction of all the Indian spices which is specially helpful for acne prone skin as it removes infection, open pores, oil skin. So I started experimenting with all those ingredient combination on myself and later on friends and families.

Where are the ingredients sourced from?

SV: Our raw materials come from Kerala, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, and other States. We also grow few of them in our facility. Each product has 20 ingredients. If I have to give a number, then say 34 SKUs multiplied by 20 ingredients, of which 50 per cent are unique and rest are common ingredients. It could be around 300 ingredients are sourced from organic farms, and some from organic product distributors. We use a particular turmeric which is directly got from farmers. Then we also use herbs, and ayurveda ingredients too.

How was the demand for Old School Rituals when it was launched?

SK: The share of demand for Old School service kits shot up at our salons. Now, nearly 95 per cent of our customers opt for services that use our products at Bubbles. After clocking two lakh services here, over a period of four years, we launched Old School Rituals, our online platform in July 2023. We witnessed adaption of Old School products faster at tier-2 cities like Vizag, Vijayawada, Guntur, and others.

How much retail sales have you registered till date?

SK: We have launched 34 SKUs and have received licenses for 17 others, these will be launched seasonally over a period of time. We have few verticals of revenue – after launching Old School Rituals, we started scaling it up slowly through social media marketing. Solely from our online platform, we have registered sales of 25 lakh units per month. From the last four months we are present on Amazon, Nykaa, and Tata Cliq. The third revenue vertical we are looking at is being present in other luxury salons. We are in the final stage of closing a deal soon in Chennai and Hyderabad. Our plan is to associate with 18 salon and spa brands this year for service kits and retail sale of Old School product line.

How are the products placed in terms of pricing when compared to other similar brands?

SK: Our products are sold in 18 cities including few pockets in North East. In terms of sales, Hyderabad stands first followed by Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi. As Old School is placed in the luxury segment the products start from Rs 750 for a lip balm and under eye cream and goes upto Rs 3,200 for kumkumadi oil in 30 ml bottle. For face care, we have lip balm, under-eye cream, face masks, cleansers (gel-based and powder form), and serums, for body care, we have body butters, massage oil, scrubs, ubtans, bath salts, and for hair care we have hair oil. We will be launching 63 herb hair shampoo in powder form, for which we have already got the license. For babies we have hand-made by grandmas line of products.

Could you elaborate on Old School’s manufacturing capability?

SK: We have set up a manufacturing facility and research and development centre at Aleap industrial estate. It is a 12,500 sft space which can accommodate our next three year business plan. Right now we are not utilising the facility to its maximum capacity. We manufacture 6,000 to 8,000 units per month, this can scale upto a lakh units. 95 per cent of the brands in the market go for contract manufacturing and buy extracts from the market. The difference we bring in is that we create everything in-house.

What are the services provided at Old School Brindavanam?

SV: At Brindavanam we have a retail space, crystal oil infused therapies, ritual space for body, hair, and face, spa for foot-hand-hair, then we have naturopathy doctor who also does acupuncture and physiotherapy. In the next two months, we will be opening a cafeteria which will offer old school menu -- not only healthy but rich in memories.

What is the total count of people employed here? What is the expansion plan for Brindavanam?

SV: We have about 50 people working at the factory, 30 people at Brindavanam (first branch), and 25 to 30 at corporate office. Brindavanam ritual centre will be entering new cities. We have identified Fort Kochi, the designs are getting ready for this centre, Goa we are finalising soon, Chennai is on the list, we may enter Delhi at some point too. Right now the plan is to enter seven locations in India over the next 18 months.

Any plans of entering International market and raising capital for the expansion plan?

SK: We definitely want to go International. To start with we will enter the US, then there is also Middle East, and Australia. But, for this year our focus is India. Right now, we have bootstrapped Rs 10 crore to build the brand, and the manufacturing facility. Additional Rs 7 crore we raised from friends and family at Rs 100 crore valuation. Going ahead we will look at Rs 10 crore to suffice our plans for the next three years. This year we will be reaching a turnover of nearly Rs 13 crore. Last financial year we clocked Rs 6 crore. From now on, scaling up will fastrack with our presence on other online marketplaces too.

Which product is in demand and what does the purchase trend indicate?

SV: Interestingly, 50 per cent of our customers are men. This trend indicates the growing interest for self-care natural products among men. Red sandalwood product line, hair oil, lip balm, and now crystal salt is becoming a big hit. Indian spices product line is our unsung hero and I believe more customers should try that as much as they use other products. We have multiple verticals for customers to try out. We have a vertical where we sell gift boxes too, recently for Tanishq we provided 2,000 gift boxes to be gifted to their high-end customers.

Going ahead, will you be open to being acquired?

SV: Any brand that wants to grow has to strategically take that route at one point. What percentage, what stake, is a different story that will be looked into when it is the right time. Maybe not immediately as we are building the brand in that direction, when something interesting comes up we will consider it. Many brands are showing interest and communication is live on those lines. I would want to associate with someone who obviously wants the founder to be involved because for the brand to come this far the ideas, the whole story telling, product line, formulation, is the founders mind. If that flavour is gone from the brand then it will just be one among the 100 brands that are available in the market.