Vandana Luthra
Vandana Luthra | |
---|---|
Born |
1959 India |
Occupation | Entrepreneur |
Title | Founder and Vice Chairperson, VLCC |
Spouse(s) | Mukesh Luthra |
Children | Two daughters |
Awards |
Padma Shri Woman Entrepreneur Award FICCI Successful Business Woman Award Amity Woman Achievers Award Outstanding Business Woman Award Rajeev Gandhi Women Achiever Award |
Website | Official web site of VLCC |
Vandana Luthra (born on 12th July, 1959) is an Indian entrepreneur and the founder of VLCC Health Care Ltd. a beauty and wellness conglomerate[1] represented in Asia,the GCC and Africa.[2] She is also the Chairperson of the Beauty & Wellness Sector Skill Council (B&WSSC), an initiative that provides training under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana scheme. She was honored by the Government of India in 2013 with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for her contribution to the fields of trade and industry.[3]She won the Asian Business Leaders Forum Trailblazer Award in 2012 and The Enterprise Asia Women Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2010. She has been ranked 26th in the distinguished annual Forbes Asia 50 Power Businesswomen in the APAC region (which includes Asia, Australia and New Zealand). She has also featured in the prestigious Fortune magazine’s annual listing of the ‘50 Most Powerful Women in Business in India’ for five years in a row – from 2011 to 2015
Early Life and Education
Vandana Luthra was born in New Delhi in 1959. Her father was a mechanical engineer and her mother, ran a charitable yoga ashram with an Ayurveda doctor, called Amar Jyoti. She completed her graduation from the Polytechnic for Women in New Delhi. She later went on to gain expertise in beauty, fitness, food and nutrition and skin care from Germany, UK and France. She married Mukesh Luthra in 1980 and Vandana started VLCC in 1989, as a beauty and slimming services centre in Safdarjung Development Area, New Delhi, when her elder daughter was only three years old.
About VLCC
Vandana Luthra’s brain child VLCC has a strong national and international presence. It offers weight management and beauty programmes (skin, body and haircare treatments and advanced dermatology and cosmetology solutions). VLCC's weight-management solutions include a unique DNA-based weight management system to customize weight loss programmes for an individual. VLCC has the largest scale and breadth of operations within the beauty and wellness services industry in India. Currently the store operates in 326 locations in 153 cities and 13 countries in South Asia, South East Asia, the GCC Region and East Africa. With employee strength of over 4,000, including nutrition counsellors, medical professionals, physiotherapists, cosmetologists and beauty professionals, VLCC is a leader in the Indian beauty & wellness industry by market share in the total organized industry The company operates its products business through its subsidiary, VLCC Personal Care Limited in India and GVig in Singapore, which it acquired in September 2013. Presently, its GMP-certified manufacturing plants are situated at Haridwar, India and Singapore. The company manufactures and markets 170 hair care, skin care and body care products along with functional and fortified foods that are consumed in-house (in treatments and therapies at VLCC Wellness Centres). These products are also sold through 100,000 outlets in India, over 10,000 outlets across the GCC region and South East Asia as well as through e-commerce channels. VLCC also operates vocational training institutes called the VLCC Institute of Beauty & Nutrition that have grown to become India’s largest chain of vocational education academies in the beauty and nutrition training segment with 73 campuses in 55 cities across India and one in Nepal. The institutes train nearly 10,000 students annually and offer courses in multiple disciplines.
Philanthrophy
Vandana actively helps the underprivileged and the physically challenged by providing them scholarships for free education. She is Vice Chairperson of the NGO, Khushii, which has projects like telemedicine centres, a remedial school with midday meal facility catering to 3,000 children, and a vocational training facility. She is patron of the Amar Jyoti Charitable Trust, which pioneered the concept of educating children with and without disability in equal number from nursery to class VIII. The Trust now has over 800 in children in its 2 schools.
Awards and recognitions
Vandana has received a host of awards for excellence and entrepreneurship over the years including the Padma Shri (India’s fourth highest civilian honour) in 2013 for her contribution to trade and industry.
- The Asian Business Leaders Forum Trailblazer Award in 2012
- The Enterprise Asia Women Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2010
- Most recently, Mrs. Vandana Luthra has been ranked 26th in the distinguished annual Forbes Asia 2016 list of 50 Power Businesswomen in the APAC region (which includes Asia, Australia and New Zealand). Of the 50 women achievers featured, only 8 are from India
- She has also featured in the prestigious Fortune magazine’s annual listing of the ‘50 Most Powerful Women in Business in India’ for five years in a row – from 2011 to 2015
Publications
Vandana Luthra has authored two books, Complete Fitness Programme[4] and A Good Life,[5] on wellness and fitness.
- Vandana Luthra (2011). Complete Fitness Programme. Sangam Books. p. 152. ISBN 978-8125906919.
- Vandana Luthra (2013). A Good Life. HarperCollins India. p. 240. ISBN 978-9351160113.
References
- ↑ "VLCC". VLCC. 2014. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
- ↑ "BBC Interview of VLCC Founder & Mentor Vandana Luthra". BBC World News - YouTube video. 18 October 2013. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
- ↑ "Padma 2013". The Hindu. 26 January 2013. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
- ↑ Vandana Luthra (2011). Complete Fitness Programme. Sangam Books. p. 152. ISBN 978-8125906919.
- ↑ Vandana Luthra (2013). A Good Life. HarperCollins India. p. 240. ISBN 978-9351160113.
External links
- "Padma Awards List". Indian Panorama. 2014. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
- "BBC Interview of VLCC Founder & Mentor Vandana Luthra". BBC World News - YouTube video. 18 October 2013. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
- Vivek Bhatt (29 May 2013). Sandesh News- The Success Story with Ms.Vandana Luthra (Founder, VLCC) Part 1 (TV Interview). Sandesh News - YouTube video.
- Vivek Bhatt (29 May 2013). Sandesh News- The Success Story with Ms.Vandana Luthra (Founder, VLCC) Part 2 (TV Interview). Sandesh News - YouTube video.
- Vivek Bhatt (29 May 2013). Sandesh News- The Success Story with Ms.Vandana Luthra (Founder, VLCC) Part 3 (TV Interview). Sandesh News - YouTube video.
- "Business Standard Interview". Business Standard. September 3, 2010. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
- "Profile on Small Industries Development Bank of India". Small Industries Development Bank of India. 2014. Retrieved October 19, 2014.