Singleton’s upgrades services

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This article was published 21/12/2018 (2663 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

American hair-care giant Great Clips is coming to town just as local chain Singleton’s moves away from quick-service haircuts.

Great Clips sent out a call for interested franchisees this week. The company sees the potential for up to 20 Great Clips franchises in Winnipeg. That could produce 160 to 200 full- and part-time jobs, Great Clips CEO Steve Hockett said.

Great Clips offers quick-service, no-fooling-around barbering.

“We’re a hair salon but we do haircuts,” Hockett said. “We’ll do styles. We’ll shampoo. But Great Clips is all about haircuts.”

Great Clips is entering the Winnipeg market just as the hair care landscape is changing. Great Clips could pick up market that Singleton’s Hair Care is vacating.

Singleton’s, founded 37 years ago in Winnipeg, is in the process of rebranding away from quick service to full-service hair salons, co-owner Megan McGhie said. Singleton’s opened a salon in the Exchange District last week as part of that rebranding.

“I really don’t think (Great Clips) will have an impact on what we’re doing,” said McGhie, the granddaughter of Singleton’s founder Albert George Singleton McGhie.

“We’ve changed our business model,” she said. “We’ve elevated our service. We’re elevating and rebranding.”

McGhie added there is nothing to read into the timing of the Great Clips announcement and Singleton’s opening its Exchange store a week apart.

“The timing is purely coincidence. We’ve been living in this business model for a couple of years now,” said McGhie, who owns Singleton’s along with her brother, Tyler McGhie.

Great Clips’ clientele is 70 per cent male and 30 per cent female. McGhie said that was similar to Singleton’s clientele but that is changing with its rebranding. “That walk-in business model is most appealing to men,” she said.

Singleton’s is growing its female clientele by expanding into such areas as colour services, highlighting, blow-outs and quick gloss treatments.

The launch of a Singleton’s on Market Avenue in the Exchange District just made sense to the home-grown business, McGhie said.

“We’re a Winnipeg family and what better spot to locate than the heart of the city,” she said.

It will be the flagship location for Singleton’s with the front half a salon and the back half the head office.

Great Clips started in 1982 in Minneapolis, a year later than Winnipeg’s Singleton’s. Singleton’s has remained mostly local with 11 locations in Winnipeg and two in Edmonton.

Great Clips is one of the largest hair salon chains in North America. It accounts for about US$1.4 billion in a US$50-billion annual industry.

It has more than 4,300 salons in North America, including outlets in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.

Online scheduling and a network-wide digital record of how customers like their hair cut, have helped spur the growth of the hair-care company. A basic haircut costs around $20, or less with coupons.

Great Clips has been successful in attracting about 10 per cent of local markets they enter. It spends about US$70 million per year on advertising. “We do 110 million haircuts across the U.S. and Canada,” Hockett said.

It will depend on the response from potential franchisees, but Hockett hopes Great Clips opens its first franchise in Winnipeg in 2019. Franchises will be opening in Regina and Saskatoon early in the new year.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca