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Scissor happy

Sarah Stowe

The first Just Cuts franchise opened in 1990 in Engadine, on the southern outskirts of Sydney.

Hairdresser and CEO/founder Denis McFadden looks back. “Amazingly our first franchisee is still with us today. Back then we created a whole new niche in the market place. There was nobody offering just a style cut and clients would literally fall in the door. Today due to us closing that market gap we sit between a barber and a high end salon, so there are naturally copy cats increasing the competition.

“We closed two salons during the GFC however this was more due to the fact their customer demographics had changed but the rents hadn’t, so they decided to close their doors.

“The upside is we now have 174 salons, a 2.6 percent market share and plenty of franchisee enquiries. We are the biggest hair group in the southern hemisphere and do more than 65,000 style cuts per week. Just Cuts employs over 1,500 stylists in Australia and New Zealand plus stylists at one salon in India.”

And to ensure all those people past and present who helped the business get where it is today a big party in Sydney is planned for mid July.

The average franchisee has 2.4 salons some own four, six and 12 salons. They are mostly investors but there are a few with a hairdressing background.

Just Cuts is the biggest and is now striving to be the best. “Our vision for the future has been in the planning for the past two years and I am excited to see all elements are coming together now,” enthuses McFadden.

So what are the plans? Well, for starters they reach across many aspects of the business. Online training is one focus. “We recognised with a flat fee franchise and a small head office of seven we need to be able to support all our stylists and franchisees in the most effective way possible. We have the online platform now and are in the final stages before release early this year of an exciting and interactive distance education tool for success,” says McFadden. He is adamant training and information are vital to keep franchisees and their teams engaged, growing and motivated.

Benchmarking is another target, as McFadden explains. “We have been utilising more science to measure ourselves as a group and to enable franchisees to compare their performance across the group. This is a big deal for us as hairdressing is a fairly disorganised cottage industry and all Just Cuts has done is brought some systems, processes, support and education to an historically disorganised industry.

“Financial reporting isn’t as mandatory for us as we don’t work off percentages – we are just 12 haircuts a week. This method means some of our franchisees have become independently wealthy and we all share a pretty good relationship,” he reveals.

Recruitment is an issue that’s getting a stronger focus. There has been an 80 percent turnaround in the company’s head office team in the past few years. But every time the company recruits it gets smarter at it.

“Now we get really skilled people on board not just “people I like”. As we change, become more sophisticated and evolve we inevitably lose some people along the way.

“That old clichŽ ‘get the right people on the bus’ is a real truth! Franchisee selection is the same as we see potential salon owners as our business partners,” McFadden adds.

The all important brand has had an overhaul too. “We have a new look and feel thanks to the assistance of M&C Saatchi and a new salon thanks to Brands in Space,” says McFadden. “They were both fantastic in our evolution. We can now drop away from price and make a clear value for money statement about our service.

“I feel very robust about Just Cuts new branding.”

Stylists and clients reportedly love the environment and the freshen up has only encouraged shopping centre lease managers to seek out the business.

“The new look is a real innovation and we have managed to upgrade and keep the fit out price the same. That was Brands in Space’s real strength and design innovation and our brief to them.”

A new website was launched in January for completion by the end of February with a new family image representing some rather quirky characters franchisees refer to as the Adams family. The group shot is designed to represent a cross section of all of society, reflecting the idea reinforced by the tag-line ‘Style Cuts for Everybody’.

The franchise system is also moving to an e-marketing medium that McFadden says is proving very successful and will better support franchisees and their businesses via the web.

In contrast roadshows put the business out in the franchisees’ world. Says McFadden, “We recognised that as a small team with a large group we needed to come out of the ivory tower and reach out to our franchise community. We took training for franchisees and their stylists to different states as a business coaching model.

“It is interesting what you find out about your franchisee community when you go to them. We were able to reward the top performers and give genuine assistance to anyone wanting to grow their business.”

That also became the motivator to initiate online support for the group and better measure performance and productivity through appropriate benchmarking. Overall the results have proved worthwhile; McFadden reports good performance with a 10 percent increase in 2009 despite the GFC.

And then there is the Summer Collection, a selection of images reflecting the hairstyles cut and created for real customers by members of the Just Cuts hairdressing teams.

“To remind our clients all our stylists are professionals and to reward our teams, we sent one happy New Zealand hairdresser to Italy, all cashed up, having won an international haircutting competition with Just Cuts.”

There were other prizes too, says McFadden. “The innovation and quality of cuts is purely down to the stylists. They will feel very proud when we launch the wonderful images in salon. They can look at the imagery knowing and saying Just Cuts hairdressers created those cuts for real people, our customers.”

Another competition is planned and this will be an online contest allowing customers to vote and ultimately judge the entries. Not only will this be fun, suggests McFadden, but it also helps with retention and recruitment of stylists and brings a little of the theatre and glamour of the hair and beauty world to Just Cuts.