Leading beauty salon Persona will open an office in Chittagong in December to cater to the growing market in the port city.
“We have a strong customer base in Chittagong. As we don’t have any branch there, many fly to the capital in the morning, take service throughout the day and fly out in the evening,” said Kaniz Almas Khan, managing director of Persona.
The makeover artist said whenever there is a big marriage ceremony in Chittagong, a Persona team flies there. “It costs the party and the company a lot.”
Kaniz said the new branch may open on December 26 if everything goes right.
The branch to be set up at Prabartak More, one of the plush areas in the port city, will take the number of its branches to 11. A building with an area of 15,000 square feet has already been leased, apart from 3,000 square feet on the same building for offices.
Decoration will start soon as the planning has been confirmed, said Kaniz, who pioneered beauty industry in Bangladesh and made Persona the most popular brand.
The Chittagong branch will be the company’s first venture outside Dhaka. It has seven branches for women and three for men in the capital.
Launched in 1990 under the brand name of Glamour with only nine beauticians, Persona now employs around 2,000 people, 99 percent of them are women.
Kaniz said: “Nowadays both female and male customers regularly visit us. Beautification is not a luxury now.”
On an average, 4,000 customers visit Persona outlets daily. Of them, around 5 percent are men.
She said the industry has evolved so much that now women do not hesitate to take beautification business as a profession. “Everyday our CV bank receives a couple of applications,” Kaniz said.
There are over 2,000 beauty parlours and salons across the country.
The company has also launched Persona Institute of Beauty and Life Style to help build career as beauty specialists.
Between August and September, it provided free training to 27 women from different parts of the country.
She said these women will now be able to set up their own beauty parlours in their hometowns and create jobs for others.
The company also plans to open branch in Sylhet. No timeline has been set yet, said Kaniz, also the editor of fashion magazine Canvas, a sister concern of Persona.
Persona Adams is a joint venture beauty care centre between Persona and Indian beauty care specialist Jawed Habib. It also has a spa named Persona Spa.
