The history of one well-known hair and beauty stockist...

Salons Direct founders Gareth & Val Roberts explain the history of the leading stockist of professional hair products and beauty supplies. "During 1991, having owned several salons previously, we identified a gap in the market for a need of a greater choice of tools and personal equipment for hairdressers and salon owners. In order to reach as many stylists and professionals as possible, we decided the easiest and most effective way would be to produce a mail order catalogue for the hairdressing industry. In June 1992, the catalogue was born, just 20 pages. During the early years it was difficult to establish a connection with hairdressers as this format of marketing had never been used within the industry before. Together with constant promoting and exhibiting at trade shows such as Salon International, slowly the trade became aware to the benefits of purchasing from the catalogue with a greater choice of products than their previous sources. Throughout the following years, we continued to grow our offering of products and brands, giving an unparalleled range which now includes furniture and ‘wet lines’ from all the major manufacturers and colour houses. In March 2003 we were joined by our daughters, Danielle and Gemma, primarily to help set-up our ‘Superstore’ in Bidston, Wirral. winning the inaugural HBSA ‘Best Wholesale Branch’ award. They continued to work within the business and in April 2005 at Professional Beauty, London we launched of our first Beauty Catalogue of 228 pages. We had now become a genuine ‘Family Business’ With the onset of the internet and the launching of our website in 2002, the continuing production of both Hair and Beauty catalogues with a combined total of over 700 pages, we had now well and truly established ourselves as one of the principal companies within the hair and beauty wholesale sector. Now, 30 years on, operating from our 75,000 sq. ft warehouse, with over 85 staff and fulfilling over 6000 orders per week we are very proud and humble to have made this long journey along with all the dedicated employees without whom this would not have been possible." This is a sponsored post in collaboration with Salons Direct.