Guwahati, Nov. 6: She has not just made a mark in the beauty business with her herbal products but also changed many lives by training them to set up salons.

Shahnaz Husain is now planning to set up skill development centres in the Northeast and expand her company's distribution network in all the northeastern states in this financial year.

"Our products are already available in Guwahati, Shillong, Sikkim and in this financial year, we will extend our distribution network in all the northeastern states. We have been receiving business queries from all over the region and on the basis of the response our expansion plans would be executed by opening distribution centres all over the Northeast in the coming months. We will also open skill development training centres in the Northeast like in Bengal to provide an opportunity to economically weaker and needy people to start their own beauty centres and salons," Siddhartha Sen, corporate communications officer of Shahnaz Husain Group, said.

He said the company would create branding at sales outlets, parlours and spas, free sampling for customers in the coming months as part of its promotional activities.

Started nearly 40 years ago as Women's World International and now known as Shahnaz Husain's Beauty Training Academy, the institutes offers professional diploma and post-graduate courses on beauty care and herbal treatment.

The company has nearly 75 beauty training schools in India and abroad. Students from other countries also come for training at the institutes.

The plan to foray into Northeast comes at a time when the BJP-led government both at the Centre and in Assam is planning to revamp skill development education for entrepreneurship and create more jobs.

Union minister for skill development and entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy recently said skill development centres would be set up in each block in Assam.

On the market potential in the Northeast, Sen said it was developing faster than their expectations. "We expect to capture it with our professional approach to increase our product population in all the important towns of the Northeast. Although communication is still a challenge, we are hopeful that we will be able to succeed in our plan like we have done in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, where we faced similar problems," he said.

"As people in hilly areas need better skin and hair care, we anticipate a huge demand for our natural and herbal products in the Northeast," he said.