Yogi parmar - a career in scissors

Yogi Parmar’s career has included a spell in accountancy, a successful period as a salon owner and more recently working with software company Shortcuts. Since 2013 he has been managing director of South of England-based salon group, Scissors. How did the job at Scissors come about? I joined Scissors in 2013. I was looking for a new challenge and what better way to do this than to embrace the family business. The opportunity came about after many conversations with my now chairman Peter Dellicompagni, who is also my wife Mia’s uncle, on a family holiday in Portugal. Peter talked to me about the opportunity with Scissors and I didn’t hesitate as it was exactly what I was looking for. What qualities did you bring to the role of MD? Having already worked in the industry for 25 years, I knew my past experiences would help me within my new role. I wanted to bring an energy into Scissors and saw this as a fantastic challenge to drive an already strong brand forward in line with our sister company Francesco Group’s strong brand. I brought my wife Mia Dellicompagni with me as the hairdressing support and my right hand woman. Together we have a wealth of experience that gives confidence to our franchisees and their teams. What were the main challenges when you first took over? Scissors was living on its past reputation and our competitors had caught up. Training was a main challenge from apprentices to technical and updating cutting techniques. Did you set yourself specific goals – and have you achieved them? Goals are ongoing and always evolving. My first goal was to win hearts and minds of our leaders -  without strong leaders I would have nothing. I also had the task of setting up our academy in Poole, Dorset. This was to be instrumental in the development of our training going forward. We have invested heavily in this area. I'm proud to say we are now the largest private training provider in our area in modern apprenticeships. This we have developed very quickly working alongside our sister company Francesco Group. Our main goals looking forward to 2016 are to open a new franchised salon, drive our technical percentage higher than the industry standard and to expand our training provision. How have you developed the franchise scheme since taking over as MD? We have eight salons within the group and six are franchised. I work closely alongside Ben Dellicompagni, managing director of Francesco Group. Francesco Group have more than 40 years of experience within franchising and this allows me to develop very quickly. Ben and I are always looking of ways to grow and develop and improve the franchise scheme. How do you source suitable franchisees, and what are you looking for? Mia and I are constantly talking to our teams, identifying who could be our next leader. We work very closely with Francesco Group and put strong candidates on a year-long management training course. This gives them an insight into running their own business within the franchise model. The type of people we are looking for tend to be strong hairdressers. It takes pressure off their business and if they can drive money through the till from day one then, of course, the obvious attributes of leadership, passion, drive and a hunger to want to succeed and be better. How do you ensure standards are maintained across the group? Standards are driven from many angles. The main is obviously our academy. From the first day of NVQ training right through to our senior stylists we put strong development plans working in conjunction with Francesco Groups matrix system. We also have the benefit of using Francesco Group’s advanced academy and creative team and have a long and very strong partnership with Wella UK. This ensures high hairdressing standards. We have recently been working with John Huscroft - he has been training our leaders to be "private jet" level of service. This has been a fantastic exercise which, by no accident, has increased our sales with retail and treatments. We also carry out mystery shopper exercises, ensuring we have quality throughout. Everybody involved with our company, from head office to the academy, delivers exceptional service which I believe feeds a culture through to our teams and, ultimately, our clients. What is the relationship with Francesco Group and how does it benefit Scissors? We have made a very conscious decision to think as one. Power in numbers and obvious strength in all our experiences works to everyone's benefit. Not only does Scissors benefit from Francesco Group’s experience but Francesco Group benefits from Scissors’ too - a successful marriage of two very similar and successful brands. Did you consider rebranding the Scissor salons as Francesco Group? When I first joined Scissors this was not on my radar, however as I have got to know the people and the teams, it makes sense to rebrand as one. Two successful rregional groups rebranding to one national brand is a great move forward. We have already rebranded our academy under the Francesco Group Education brand. This has proved massively beneficial especially as Francesco Group won HJ’s prestigious 2014 Training Award in the British Hairdressing Business Awards. How would you describe the ethos of scissors and has this changed since you became MD? I don’t feel that the ethos has changed since I became MD. Scissors is also a fantastic family brand and since taking over we have merged these beliefs with Francesco Group and the ethos that they maintain. We have opened a hairdressing academy in Poole and they do modern apprenticeships level 2 and 3, developing the next generation through. This is something we are really proud of, going forward, this will enhance, and evolve making our teams more motivated and better skilled. The fundamentals of hairdressing never change. Quality hairdressing with quality service is enduring.