In 2020, the retail, hospitality and beauty industries were some of the hardest hit by the pandemic. International hair salon franchise Just Cuts supported their UK Franchise Owners to maintain their businesses and client base throughout the pandemic. Their end goal was to ensure that, once restrictions were lifted, the salon doors could safely reopen. David Mathie, UK General Manager, is proud to have witnessed such resilience and determination from all their franchisees.
No one could have predicted what 2020 would have in store. The first global pandemic in our lifetime has taught us all valuable lessons about taking pleasure and comfort in the small things but also the value and importance of community. I’m very proud to say that since the first UK Franchise Owner joined our network in the spring of 2019, these determined and optimistic business owners have wholeheartedly embraced our mission of becoming the largest hair salon franchise in the UK. They have also successfully formed their own community; a support network of like-minded Franchise Owners.
Despite the challenges caused by the pandemic, we’ve still taken the necessary actions to realise our goal of UK domination. As well as maintaining our social media presence throughout the months of forced closures, we kept in regular contact with our Franchise Owners to ensure morale remained high and they felt reassured and valued. From a strategic perspective, we also devised two brand-new initiatives to ensure the longevity of our UK network.
Strategy one: we source and invest in salon premises in key locations. Once these are rebranded, fitted out and opened to the public, we offer these sites to prospective Franchise Owners at a reduced rate. This turnkey business offering encourages more investors into our network and also makes it easier for existing Franchise Owners to take over more locations.
Strategy two: our standard franchise model investment is around £120,000; currently, that is an investment that some of our fantastic candidates cannot commit to or gain majority funding for. In these cases, and because there are prime retail spaces available in almost every shopping centre in every town in the UK, we have developed a more affordable investment model. Normally, we would only rebrand a former salon, but we now have a contractor secured who can install and brand any empty retail unit affordably. This means we can agree an initial franchise term with a candidate for a £40,000 investment including securing a lease, fitting out the salon and filling it with JUSTICE Professional products.
Throughout 2020 and as we forge ahead into 2021, I’ve been working with the rest of our Academy team in Australia to consistently reflect on the components of our growth plan and how our adapted initiatives have performed. Although we’ve been planning for the next phase of our nationwide expansion for quite some time, the beginning of a new year is a great time to gather our thoughts and prepare ourselves for what will hopefully soon be a post-pandemic collective sigh of relief.
We have multiple new salon locations already in the pipeline which, as per our nationwide investment model established last year, will be opened first as company-owned salons before we source the right Franchise Owners to take them on. We will also work with our existing Franchise Owners to devise plans for the growth of their own portfolios. The majority of our UK network already own more than one salon, but we’d like to see some of them going down the same route as many of our Australian and New Zealand Franchise Owners, by launching between three and five salons. We’ll also continue to contribute to the franchising industry as a whole, coming together to share best practice and help it thrive throughout this period of uncertainty.
Our Franchise Owners have achieved many professional and personal goals in the last 12 months, something I will be encouraging them to replicate over this coming year. Holly Feltham, as an example, won two coveted national business awards in 2020 and is in the running for another, the Quality Franchise Association’s Franchisee of the Year. Representing a brand that is continuing to push boundaries and offer a quality service to loyal clients has been one of the highlights of my career and will continue to be for many years to come.
David Mathie is UK General manager at Just Cuts. He has 19 years’ experience working in the hair and beauty industry and heads up Just Cuts in the United Kingdom. A Just Cuts Franchise Owner himself, David spent the previous five years running national operations for Just Cuts in Australia and New Zealand before moving to London.
