Francesco Group is taking care of its roots

Whether it was folding towels to ensure the Francesco Group brand was on the outside or shampooing people’s hair for tips, some of Ben Dellicompagni’s happiest childhood memories are of working in his father’s salon. “I loved being in the salon and loved the energy of it,” he says. But the smell of conditioner and feel of terrycloth aren’t the only things that have stuck with the now managing director of the franchise: perhaps the most indelible impression Frank Dellicompagni left on his son was the importance of working hard and being self reliant. “As a young man, I saw the blood, sweat and tears that went into building the company,” he says. “Our family had an incredible work ethic. That’s the building blocks of who we are: it’s in our DNA.”

This is no hyperbole: the Dellicompagni family has never shied away from hard graft. As a prisoner of war during the second world war, Dellicompagni’s grandfather was billeted to a farm in Staffordshire and impressed the farmer so much that he was invited to come back and work as a labourer. “And he was so enamoured of the English lifestyle and the potential of the education for his children he said yes,” Dellicompagni says. “After being repatriated to Italy, he worked his way across war-torn Europe.” Once he was situated, he sent for his wife and infant son and through his efforts was able to eventually buy his own home. This inevitably had a strong influence on Dellicompagni’s father. “We’re a hard working, immigrant family, so my dad was of course brought up with that work ethic,” Dellicompagni says.

At age 14, Dellicompagni Senior was given the option of either coming to work with his father – who by this time was working in a factory – or learning a trade. He chose the latter. “He’d been brought up in a very rigid catholic family so there weren’t many opportunities for self-expression,” says Dellicompagni. “But he liked fashion and the thought of working in a culture where he could express himself.” Settling on hairdressing, Dellicompagni’s father went to train at a private college before heading over to Italy to refine his skills working under his uncle, a prestigious hairdresser. On his return, he travelled around in a Morris Minor cutting hair until he had enough clients to open a bricks-and-mortar salon. “Nan and Grandad remortgaged their house and helped him get the lease for his first unit,” says Dellicompagni.

By this stage, Vidal Sassoon was making waves in the capital and Swinging London was well under way: Frank Dellicompagni could sense that the country was in the midst of a cultural shift when it came to coiffures. “The fashion moved from women sat in dryers having a shampoo and set to cutting, styling and finishing,” says Dellicompagni. “It was a boom time in the hairdressing industry.” Joined by his brother Peter, Dellicompagni Senior studied at one of Sassoon’s academies and, with the help of several external partners, the brothers grew their portfolio of salons to eight. However, in time their plans diverged from those of their partners and so the entrepreneurs decided to go their own way, taking just one brand with them: the Francesco Group.

Over the next few decades, the Dellicompagnis built the Francesco Group back up to eight salons but by the 1980s they were looking for something to help them accelerate the business’s growth. Fortunately, franchising provided the perfect fuel. “They’d seen franchising come over to the UK and realised it was the key to unleashing the potential of their own people,” he says. Typically a limiting factor for hairdressers is that a salon manager advances so far and then, when they have the required level of expertise, they leave and set up in competition. Switching to a franchise model was a win-win for the Francesco Group because it allowed it to capitalise on this built-in talent pool and at the same time incentivise salon managers to stay in the business. “It worked for us because we had the people to franchise with: we didn’t have to go out and find them,” says Dellicompagni.

Over the following two decades, the Francesco Group doubled in size and the young Dellicompagni graduated from folding towels to finding his own way in the capital. “Living and working in London was a great experience but at times it was a ruthless one,” he says. “I ended up working for some cut-throat companies but all those things that my father had ingrained in me saw me right.” Despite having some bad experiences with media sales companies, Dellicompagni eventually landed a job selling training packages for Video Arts, the e-learning provider, something that he feels taught him invaluable skills for later in his career. “I learnt what it meant to be effective in sales and what a good culture felt like to work in,” he says. “That stood me in good stead.”