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Contents
- Operating practices
- Jargon and special features
- Sales mix
- Seasonality
- Factors affecting sales
- Prime records
- Customers, terms offered
- Suppliers, terms obtained
- Trade specific legislation
- General legislation
- Health and safety legislation
- Employment legislation
- Licensing requirements
- Sources of further information
Sector overview
Market position
The majority of hairdressing businesses are small concerns. It has been estimated that at least 75% of all salons in the UK are independently owned, single outlet businesses; some estimates put this figure as high as 90%. According to government figures included in ONS Business Monitor PA1003, only 9,245 hairdressing and other beauty treatment businesses were registered for VAT in 2001, just over 25% of the total number of businesses in this sector.
OAlmost 60% of operatives within the hairdressing and beauty industry are female (see Statistics: Table 3), although around 50% of all salon owners are men. A large number of all operatives in this sector (around 40% - 45%) are self-employed, while over 40% of all operatives (employed and self-employed) only work on a part time basis.
Small local and regional chains do exist, as do several larger multiple concerns (for example Regis Europe). A report by the Department of Trade and Industry on the hairdressing sector (1994) gives the following approximate breakdown of the industry (note: these are the most recent figures available):
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It is estimated that these percentages did not change significantly during the closing years of the 1990s and into the early 2000s, although the market share held by multiples at the lower end of the market is thought to have increased somewhat, primarily at the expense of the smaller independent.
If mobilers, freelances and other micro-businesses with no premises (other than a 'rented chair' in a salon) are excluded, the sector is dominated by owner-managed businesses with a single outlet and 4 employees or less. HABIA found in its 2000 survey of the industry (Occupational Analysis of the Hairdressing Sector) that 65% of responding businesses fell into this category.
The last two categories include franchise holders, who are self-employed but who operate within a larger, high profile scheme. Research by the Hairdressing and Beauty Industry Authority (HABIA) suggests that around 1% or more of all salons are franchises. The smallest micro-businesses, including mobile hairdressers and salon freelances, generally have low overheads and represent strong competition for the independent salon.