MAM
The royal legacy continues in Bengaluru with Truefitt & Hill
Mumbai: Truefitt & Hill, the world’s oldest barbershop, renowned among the British upper crest for over two centuries, continues its illustrious legacy by introducing its luxurious grooming experience to Koramangala, one of the most upscale retail enclaves nestled in the heart of Bengaluru. The city has long yearned for exclusive male grooming establishments, rendering it a prime market to promote Truefitt & Hill’s luxurious approach. The brand already has three luxury barber shops on Lavelle Road, Indiranagar, and Sadashivnagar. The opening of the new store aligns with the company’s ambitious strategy of establishing 50 luxury barber shops across 30 cities in the Indian subcontinent by March 2025.
The store was inaugurated by Niranjan Mukundan (Paralympian 2020), along with Lloyds Luxuries Ltd managing director & COO Prannay Dokkania, Firefox Productions Pvt Ltd co-founders & directors, & Truefitt & Hill, Koramangala (Bengaluru) franchise owners, Pratyush Kumar & Jainendra Kumar.
Mukundan, a native of Bangalore, is a celebrated and accomplished para-swimmer from India. In 2015, he earned the prestigious title of Junior World Champion. His remarkable achievements in swimming align perfectly with the persona of a brand dedicated to men’s grooming. With great enthusiasm and excitement, the esteemed para-athlete inaugurated the store, adding to the thrill of the event.
Keeping up with the brand’s legacy, the ambience of the Kormangala franchisee store is just like all the previous existing stores – elegant and noble. The spacious and sprawling 1800 ft. store has three Royal Suites (private rooms), Barber stations with four chairs and valet parking. Besides signature services like the Royal Shave and the Royal Haircut, Truefitt & Hill also offers Membership in which patrons can avail unlimited grooming services across the country and other privileges like discounts on products, referral invitations etc.
Speaking about the launch, Lloyds Luxuries Ltd. chairman Shreekrishna Gupta said, “The growth of the luxury grooming market is a testament to the increasing awareness of the benefits of personal care and grooming in modern society. With Koramangala being an upmarket area and a retail paradise for HNIs and UNHIs, it is a perfect location for a luxe brand like ours. As an established brand in the luxury grooming market, we understand the importance of providing our customers with a premium experience that is second to none. We are confident that our new location will be a resounding success.”
Dokkania said, “Over the past decade, there has been a significant shift in men’s perception towards grooming. We firmly believe that everyone deserves to feel the best of themselves, and we are committed to providing the tools and expertise needed to make that happen. With a strong emphasis on superior quality and innovative approach, we have successfully positioned ourselves as a brand that deeply connects with contemporary Indian men. We have set an ambitious target of expanding our presence and feel we are on the right track.”
Pratyush Kumar opined, “Truefitt & Hill, with a legacy spanning over two centuries of having served the Monarchs of Great Britain for nine consecutive reigns, remains a bastion of timeless style and sophistication. Our partnership with Lloyds Luxuries Ltd. represents an exciting opportunity to bring the royal grooming experience to a wider consumer base. We’re uniquely positioned to add value to the men’s luxury grooming connoisseurs in this part of the city.”
Truefitt & Hill, along with Lloyds Luxuries Ltd, has successfully inaugurated 31 luxury, cutting-edge barbershops across more than 15 cities in India. Responding to the increasing demand, the brand aspires to explore new frontiers and opportunities in the grooming sector in the near future. The services are tailored to meet the diverse needs of the clientele, ranging from haircuts, shaves, and facials to a wide range of grooming products.
In addition to offering high-end luxury grooming services tailored for men, Truefitt & Hill presents an array of men’s grooming essentials encompassing shampoo, serum, aftershave balm, bath and shower gel, colognes, luxurious shaving soap, shaving cream, brushes, and an extensive selection. Having been made in England, these carefully curated products aim to enhance one’s appearance, allowing one to exude elegance during a romantic rendezvous or exude sophistication in a professional setting.
Brands
GUEST COLUMN: Beyond layoffs, India emerges as creative-tech hub
Shift in hiring and AI-led workflows is reshaping global media and marketing
MUMBAI:The global narrative around layoffs in media and technology may suggest contraction, but a deeper transformation is reshaping how creative and tech capabilities are built and deployed. For Sanjil Zaveri, general manager – India at Brandtech+, this shift is less about decline and more about redistribution, one that is positioning India at the centre of a new global operating model. In this piece, Zaveri explores how integrated workflows, AI-powered production, and evolving talent demands are redefining the creative-tech ecosystem, why India is emerging as a strategic hub for global content and innovation, and what this means for the future of media, marketing, and talent.
The global headlines around layoffs in technology and media continue to dominate industry conversations. From platform restructuring to reduced marketing spends, the narrative suggests a slowdown across the creative and digital ecosystem.
But beneath these headlines, a different shift is underway, one that is quietly redefining how creative and technology work is delivered globally.
Hiring is not disappearing; it is being redistributed. And India is increasingly at the centre of this transition.
A structural shift in the creative-tech ecosystem
The media and marketing landscape is undergoing a fundamental reset. Brands today are moving away from fragmented agency models and siloed teams toward more integrated, agile structures.
Creative, technology, and media are no longer operating in isolation. Campaigns are now built through connected workflows, where ideation, production, and optimisation happen simultaneously.
This shift is forcing organisations to rethink where and how teams are built. Increasingly, the focus is on capability, speed, and scalability, rather than geography alone.
India’s emergence as a creative-tech hub
India’s role in this evolving ecosystem has expanded significantly.
Traditionally positioned as a backend execution market, India is now playing a far more central role in global campaign delivery. Teams based here contribute not just to production, but also to strategy, content development, and performance optimisation.
This is particularly relevant in a market where content velocity has increased dramatically. With the rise of digital platforms, OTT, and always-on marketing, brands require high volumes of creative assets without compromising on quality.
Industry insights from Ernst & Young point to India’s growing strength as a global content hub, while NASSCOM continues to highlight the scale and depth of the country’s digital talent pool. Together, these factors create a compelling case for India as a foundation for more efficient, integrated content ecosystems serving global markets.
A global company’s perspective on India
At Brandtech+, this shift is already shaping how we operate.
As a global organisation working across creative, marketing, and technology, our talent strategy is increasingly driven by capability rather than location. India has therefore become a key market for both scale and strategic talent.
In the first quarter of this year, we have significantly accelerated hiring in India across creative, technology, and operations roles, moving well ahead of plan and continuing to build strong momentum. We are actively hiring across multiple functions, with India playing a central role in delivering integrated creativetech solutions for global brands.
These signals reflect a broader change in how global companies view India, not as a delivery centre, but as a hub for connected creative, data, and technology capabilities.
“While much of the global narrative is centred on contraction, what we are seeing in India is a different kind of growth,” says Sanjil Zaveri. “As a global company, we are investing in talent that can work across creative, data, and technology, because that is where the future of marketing is headed.”
AI and the new content economy
Artificial intelligence is playing a critical role in enabling this transformation.
In today’s media environment, the demand for content has scaled exponentially. Brands are expected to create, adapt, and optimise creative assets across multiple platforms in real time. The scale of this demand would be difficult to sustain through traditional production models alone.
AI is helping make this possible.
Rather than replacing roles, AI is streamlining workflows, automating repetitive tasks, accelerating production timelines, and enabling faster experimentation. This allows creative and strategy teams to focus on higher-value outputs.
“AI removes the mundane and elevates the meaningful,” says Zaveri. “It allows teams to focus on ideas and storytelling, while technology drives efficiency.”
For media platforms and advertisers, this is redefining how campaigns are built, moving from linear production cycles to continuous, data-driven content creation.
What this means for media talent
For professionals across media, advertising, and digital, this shift is redefining skill requirements.
The traditional boundaries between creative, media planning, and technology are blurring. Content creators are expected to understand performance metrics. Media professionals are working more closely with data, platforms, and automation. Collaboration across disciplines is becoming a core skill.
This is creating demand for hybrid talent, professionals who can operate across disciplines and adapt to rapidly changing workflows.
India’s talent ecosystem is particularly well suited to this environment. With strong capabilities across content, design, engineering, and analytics, the market offers a unique combination of scale and versatility.
Importantly, global exposure is no longer tied to relocation. Professionals in India are increasingly working on international brands and campaigns, collaborating with teams across markets in real time.
Looking ahead: India at the centre of the reset
What we are witnessing today is not a temporary phase; it is a structural reset in the global creative-tech ecosystem.
Layoffs may continue to shape short-term narratives, but they do not capture where long-term growth is being built. That growth lies in new operating models, integrated workflows, and markets that can deliver both scale and innovation.
India is firmly at the centre of this transformation.
As global media and marketing organisations continue to evolve, India’s role will only become more critical, not as a support market, but as a strategic hub for content, creativity, and technology-led innovation.
The future of creative-tech will be defined by collaboration, speed, and adaptability. And increasingly, it will be shaped from India.
Note: The views expressed in this article are solely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect our own.
