The salon operator will sharply cut its stable of brands and hopes to convert affected stores to better-performing banners like Supercuts.
Regis Corp. plans to eliminate at least half of its store brands, a move the Edina company hopes will reduce costs and simplify its bulky business.
Interim Chief Operating Officer Eric Bakken told the Star Tribune that the world’s largest operator of hair salons will trim, at a minimum, 25 brands from its stable of 50. Regis’ brands include Supercuts, MasterCuts, SmartStyle and CostCutters.
The company plans to convert most of the affected salons to the remaining brands. But Bakken says Regis will need to close some stores. He declined to disclose a figure but said the percentage of closed salons will be less than 10 percent of the company’s 7,500 salons, which doesn’t include franchises, in North America.
“We probably made [the business] more complicated than it had to be,” said Mark Fosland, the company’s senior vice president of finance.
Regis plans to redirect many salons to its strongest-performing brands like Supercuts, Hair Masters, and First Choice in Canada. The company has already converted about 80 stores to its Supercuts banner, mostly in Chicago, with another 30 to 50 salons scheduled for a brand makeover later this year.
The company will organize its remaining brands into one of three consumer segments: value, value with full service, and premium. read the rest (Source: Star Tribune)
