The leading hair & beauty retail franchise with 118 stores across Australia, offering more than 75 brands of professional haircare products under its retail arm, plus in-store hair and beauty services including a hair salon, waxing, spray tanning, nail bar and body piercing. Unlike other hair and beauty retail chains, all Hairhouse Warehouse staff are fully qualified hairdressers.
The Hairhouse Warehouse concept was born from a recognition that there were no hairdressing salons in Australia offering both hair and beauty services and a wide range of haircare products. Hairhouse Warehouse therefore offers what its competitors don’t – professional hair and beauty services, a wide range of professional brands, and qualified staff to provide expert advice - all in one location. Every Hairhouse Warehouse is a salon and this is core to the concept. So much so, that we only employ qualified hairdressers who not only work in the salons but also in the retail area to recommend salon brands to customers.
Benefits and Opportunities
Hairhouse Warehouse has a number of core elements to its operations:
- strong retail locations for its stores
- dynamic, enthusiastic franchisees
- differential product and service offer
- strong marketing and branding
- clearly identified core range
- the highest quality customer service and staff consultation from qualified hairdressers
- excellent operational systems and store standards
One needs only to look at Hairhouse Warehouse’s financial results for 2006/07 to see evidence of the system’s rapid growth. Hairhouse Warehouse has achieved excellent financial performance in 2006/07, with:
- Turn over from all stores of $81.66 million;
- Company turn over for Hairhouse Warehouse and its subsidiaries of $11.87 million; and
- 109 per cent increase in net profit before income tax, from $1.6 million to $3.4 million.
Group customer numbers have grown since June 2003 from 845,089 to 2,839,268 in June 2007.
Hairhouse Warehouse Head Office is active in introducing initiatives that build its franchise system. Recent examples include introducing new training programs, developing and implementing a new brand and updating and expanding operational manuals. A new and improved infrastructure has been set up to support the company’s growth, including expansion of key internal departments.
Beyond the range of benefits provided through the franchise agreement, such as training programs, the mystery shopper program and the local area marketing kit, Hairhouse Warehouse works hard to deliver franchisees benefits over and above the franchise agreement.
Hairhouse Warehouse treats its franchisees like family. The Head Office Road Support Team make monthly visits to all stores, providing business advice in areas such as leasing disputes, staffing issues, and legal and financial matters.
Each year Hairhouse Warehouse hosts a professional development conference that exposes franchisees to a range of workshops and speakers aimed at making them better business people and adding to the success of their retail outlets.
The company’s interim loyalty program will be formalised by the end of 2008, building loyalty by offering customers 10 per cent off all products and services for life after purchasing five products or services.
Hairhouse Warehouse recently invested $8 million into a re-brand, extending it into the execution of new store design, a new website, PR and marketing collateral, underpinned by a comprehensive communications strategy comprising five major national campaigns per year.
Franchisees also have access to the marketing department for one-to-one local marketing support. Franchisees can call to discuss ideas, concepts and strategies for their store, which the department can organise on their behalf.
Hairhouse Warehouse also offers franchisees public relations support through a retainer arrangement with a PR agency, which drafts media releases for franchisees, liaises with media and secures PR opportunities.
Skills and Experience Required
Hairhouse Warehouse selects its franchisees carefully, looking for three key attributes:
PASSION: Enthusiasm, ambition, integrity and a willingness to work hard in the business.
SUCCESS: Financial security with the capacity to open and operate the store with clear equity and working capital, supporting any borrowing costs associated with the store.
QUALIFICATION: While a background in hairdressing or beauty therapy can be an advantage when operating a Hairhouse Warehouse franchise, it is not a definitive prerequisite for prospective franchisees.
Recruitment Process
Hairhouse Warehouse uses a range of methods for recruiting franchisees to the system, including:
- Hairhouse Warehouse local area seminars
- industry press advertising and editorial such as in Australian Hair Journal;
- advertising in national newspaper publications;
- franchisee recommendation and networks
- in store point of sale collateral, making the Hairhouse stores work as ‘billboards’
- online advertisements
- networking
- the Hairhouse Warehouse website