India’s beauty and grooming sector is increasingly expanding beyond metros, as premium brands look to tier-2 and tier-3 cities for their next phase of growth. Industry trends point to rising premiumisation and growing demand for beauty and grooming services across these emerging urban markets
Rohan Shah, a competitive powerlifter and entrepreneur, is among those making that bet. He has launched a TONI&GUY Essensuals salon in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, operated with co-owner Rajesh Shah, at the Topaz Hotel in Satyam Chowk. The launch event was attended by actress Isha Koppikar, alongside business and lifestyle-industry figures from the city.
From the platform to the boardroom
Alongside his competitive career in powerlifting, Shah has also moved into entrepreneurship, and he describes the salon as an extension of the same standards he applied to athletic performance, applied instead to a service business. “The goal was to bring the same standard of grooming experience people expect in a metro to a city like Bilaspur, without diluting it,” he says.
The salon offers hair styling, skincare treatments, nail art, spa therapies and broader grooming services. According to Shah, the outlet is intended to offer product, equipment and service standards comparable with the brand’s larger-city locations.
The economics of going smaller
The move comes as beauty brands increasingly look beyond metros, with industry research pointing to rising premiumisation and beauty spending in tier-2 and tier-3 markets.
The shift reflects a broader trend across consumer industries, as premium brands increasingly expand their presence beyond India’s largest metropolitan markets. Shah views the beauty and grooming sector as catching up to a shift that has already reshaped growth strategy in other consumer industries.
What comes next
For Shah, the Bilaspur launch is one step in a broader push into the beauty and lifestyle space. “There’s real headroom in cities that have been overlooked by premium brands so far,” he says. “The opportunity is in matching that demand with genuinely high standards, not a scaled-down version of what’s available in a metro.”
Whether that bet pays off will depend on execution, sustaining service quality and building a loyal customer base outside the metro markets where such brands have traditionally concentrated. But the underlying shift, of premium lifestyle formats looking beyond India’s largest cities for their next phase of growth, is one likely to extend well past this single launch.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author/authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of ET Edge Insights, its management, or its members.
