Hairhouse Warehouse signs partnership with Myer, will offer concessions in department stores

Hair salon franchise Hairhouse Warehouse will offer existing franchisees the opportunity to operate a concession store inside Myer, after entering into a partnership with the retail giant.

Hairhouse Warehouse, which this year celebrates its 20^th birthday, was founded by Melbourne brothers Tony and Joseph Lattouf, who opened their first Hairhouse Warehouse salon in 1992.

There are now 136 stores across the country, with plans to open stores in Asia, the United States and the United Kingdom.

In the meantime, the company has entered into a partnership with Myer, which will see the launch of a new concession store model.

“We’ll be a concession store that is on the cosmetics floor of Myer… It’ll be open plan, 25 to 30 square metres,” Hairhouse Warehouse chief executive Arthur Mitroulas told Franchising.

While retail will take up 80% of the space, the stores will also have a “style bar”, which will offer heat-styling services and one-on-one education for consumers.

“It will be about fast service and very, very dynamic service,” Mitroulas said.

Mitroulas said Hairhouse Warehouse prides itself on the quality and exclusivity of its product range.

“We never stock Remington, we never stock Vidal Sassoon – they’re not professional products. You can find them anywhere in Priceline, Myer and supermarkets,” he said.

“We have unique products that are salon-only… This will be the first time where customers can purchase professional salon products from a Myer department store.”

The first Hairhouse Warehouse concession store will open in late September at the Myer store in Melbourne’s Bourke Street Mall.

It will be company-operated, with plans to franchise the concept soon after. The opportunity to operate a concession store will only be available to existing franchisees.

Mitroulas said the offer will come at about one-third of the price of a regular Hairhouse Warehouse fit-out, which is usually somewhere between $160,000 and $230,000.

“We’re currently reviewing a site in Bondi and we’ve actually allocated 25 to 30 locations that would be suitable across the country,” Mitroulas said.

“All CBD sites across the country – Queensland, Perth, Adelaide – and then what we call A-grade sites such as Chadstone, Doncaster and Chatswood.”

Over the next two to three years, Hairhouse Warehouse hopes to have around seven concession sites up and running in Melbourne, the same in NSW and the remainder spread across Australia.

But, as Mitroulas explained, the company will only run them if its franchisees agree to it.

“That’s why we need to make the [Melbourne] CBD site work because it doesn’t affect any franchisees,” he said.

“We want to be transparent with all the franchisees and show them how it’s performing, what the business model represents, because it’s different to the existing model in the sense that the rents are different – you’re dealing with Myer, not a landlord.”

This article first appeared on StartupSmart.