Photo / William Hall
On a recent Saturday, all of the Great Clips staffers working at the Falmouth salon were wearing face masks.
Updated: June 2, 2020
Maine hair salons are trying to cope with coronavirus, and new competition
Courtesy / Tim Renyi
Dane Manrriquez, manager and stylist at the Great Clips salon in Falmouth, wears a protective face mask while trimming hair for a client, also required to wear a mask under Maine rules.
By William Hall
A month after Maine hair salons were allowed to reopen their doors, the world’s largest salon chain has opened them here for the first time. And the timing may be a reminder of what prompted the state’s shutdown of salons and other businesses to begin with.
The franchises of Great Clips Inc. in Falmouth and South Portland both launched May 16, less than a week before a Great Cllps franchise in Missouri was reported to be the site of a potentially massive exposure to COVID-19.
Missouri allowed salons and other businesses to resume operation May 4 after they were temporarily shuttered in an effort to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Maine closed salons March 24 by order of Gov. Janet Mills. They were permitted to reopen May 1 under strict new safety requirements.
Since then, the Maine salons appear to have had mixed success. Still, May wasn’t an opportune month for getting into the hair business.
Tim Renyi, owner of the Great Clips salon at the Falmouth Shopping Center, began planning his entry about a year ago. A former marketing and advertising executive who worked with Great Clips as a corporate client, he had anticipated opening in April, and had already signed a lease for a vacant storefront.
When Mills lifted the shutdown on salons, however, he wanted to gauge how the state would respond, and held off on launching.
“We sat back and took our time to see how things were going to go,” Renyi told Mainebiz in an interview.
He soon had his answer. Just two weeks after opening, Renyi said, the 10-employee franchise has expanded its hours to keep up with customer demand, and is now open seven days a week, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“There certainly has been a pent-up demand,” he said. “We’ve been very well-received, and each stylist is busy.”
In South Portland, Jeff McDonald employs a staff of four at his Great Clips franchise, formerly the site of Haircuts Plus in the Mill Creek Shopping Center. McDonald, who'd worked in supply chain management but had no previous experience in the hair services industry, bought the salon and was converting it to the Great Clips flag as the pandemic hit Maine.
He said customers have been glad to see hair care return to the strip mall.
“We’re encouraged so far,” he said. “People want to get back to a look that’s something like what they had pre-COVID.”
Industry challenges
Under public health restrictions such as the Mills order, chairs have been empty at hair salons across the country. But few have had to deal with a crisis like the one confronting the Great Clips chain, which has 4,500 salons in the U.S. and Canada.
On May 23, health officials in Springfield, Mo., announced that two stylists at a Great Clips salon there had tested positive for COVID-19 and might have exposed as many as 140 clients to it. The news made national headlines and was followed by threats against Great Clips that forced the temporary closure of several of its area salons, according to news reports.
By Friday, 45 of the clients had tested negative for exposure to COVID-19, a result the Springfield-Greene County Health Department said in a news release provided “solid evidence” of the protection of face masks worn by the salon staff. But there’s no word yet on further test results.
At the Great Clips salons in Maine, staff also wear masks and follow other safety requirements for cleaning, scheduling, work spaces and the use of personal protective equipment, all detailed in a six-page checklist from the state.
“We’re putting the safety of our employees and customers first,” said McDonald. In Falmouth, Renyi said, “We wouldn’t be open if we didn’t feel we were taking every precaution and then some.”
When asked if news of the Missouri outbreak has affected customers, Renyi said, “We haven’t had to answer questions like that.”
McDonald referred Mainebiz to the Great Clips corporate office in Minneapolis, which said in a statement: “Great Clips franchisees independently own and operate all Great Clips salons and employ the staff in salons. They are following all guidelines and requirements from applicable authorities related to social distancing, cleaning, disinfecting and other measures.”
Regardless of their brand, hair salons have been reeling from the impact of the coronavirus crisis.
Nearly all of the 82,000 salons and barber shops in the U.S. have had to close for at least a month, according to industry estimates. Most are small businesses with 10 or fewer employees. In a survey conducted by the Professional Beauty Association in early May, 25% of salon operators said they didn’t think they would have enough financial resources to reopen.
Part of the reason is that, even with closures lifted in Maine and nearly every other state, salons now have to deal with the increased expense and time required to comply with the new safety protocols, such as employees changing smocks between each client.
“There’s obviously an increase in costs [because of the requirements],” said Renyi, “but this is what it takes. Most customers seem to understand.”
In South Portland, McDonald said his business is also dealing with another state restriction and the effect of less traffic at neighboring stores. For volume-based chains like Great Clips, where a men’s haircut runs around $15, walk-in clients usually make up most of the business — but are forbidden under the new rules in Maine.
“If you look at our parking lot, a lot that’s normally full, it’s only about a third full now,” McDonald said.
Cutting competition
With its salons employing a total of 40,000 stylists in 180 markets across the U.S. and Canada, privately owned Great Clips Inc. claims to be the world’s largest hair salon brand. Until last month, the chain operated franchises in every state — except Maine.
So despite the chain’s footprint, Renyi couldn’t draw on a lot of name recognition when he opened his salon. In fact, he said, only 10%-15% of his clients have ever heard of Great Clips.
The business also has to deal with an entrenched competitor, Supercuts, which operates 2,700 salons in the U.S., including one less than half a mile from Renyi’s Great Clips. There are 16 Supercuts franchises in Maine, all owned by North Andover, Mass.-based MjjM Salons, which also has 18 others in New England. The Supercuts brand, and over 300 of the franchises, are owned by Regis Corp. (NYSE: RGS).
While prices are set by each franchise, the range for a Supercut's haircut is comparable to that of a Great Clips one. The companies' franchising costs are also similar.
At the Supercuts on U.S. Route 1 in Falmouth, no one would speak with Mainebiz about the new salon just yards away. But at another Supercuts location, in nearby West Falmouth Crossing, manager Sarah Gagne told Mainebiz the salon has been running "pretty much full" since it reopened.
"We really don't see much impact [from Great Clips] on this side of town," she said. "And I think there's such a demand that people are willing to go just about anywhere to get in a chair."
She said that adjusting to the new normal has taken time, and that the extra procedures can also cost it. "But there's not too much downtime now. We're running smoothly."
At another Supercuts franchise, in Topsham, a shift manager also expressed a mix of caution and optimism. Because of the new scheduling and cleaning requirements, that salon is running at about half its usual capacity, said the manager, who gave her name as Kaya.
"At first it was a bit tricky, but after three weeks, so far so good," she added.
In the weeks ahead, as Mainers continue to tidy up locks overgrown during the shutdown, Supercuts and Great Clips won't be the only budget-priced salon chains competing for business. Another franchise network, Sport Clips, operates 1,900 salons nationwide, including ones in Bangor, Topsham and Waterville.
Nevertheless, Maine's new Great Clips franchisees both say they're looking to expand.
Renyi said he hopes to eventually have five to 10 salons in the Portland area, north to Brunswick or even Waterville. McDonald said he's aiming for a similar number from Portland southward.
"We're definitely in a growth mode," he said.
Renyi agreed, saying, "There's more than enough demand to go around in this market."
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Anonymous
June 19, 2020
Editor, I find it interesting that you reported an OUTBREAK at a great clips in Missouri. That had nothing to do with maine BUT failed to do a follow up that ZERO CLIENTS AT THOSE LOCATIONS ACTUALLY CONTRACTED ANYTHING. ALL WERE NEGATIVE so unlike our dimwitted president they all wore masks and practiced correct disinfection procedures. So I guess journalism doesn't have ethical boundaries either. EDITOR'S NOTE: The Mainebiz story did not report any sort of outbreak or suggest there were one. Instead, the article noted a "potentially massive exposure" that included two confirmed cases but led to testing of 140 people. We also reported news at the time that 45 had tested negative.
Anonymous
June 2, 2020
Um, William, you do realize that Missouri is nearly 2000 miles from Maine and the great clips franchisees in Maine do not have teleported so they can share stylist with a location in Missouri. So what an outbreak in Missouri has to do with locations in Maine is akin to criticism of you for something a Pravda writer published.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks for your comment. Yes, we realize the geographic distance. The coincidence of the Great Clips report with the franchise openings in Maine is merely that, a coincidence. Unfortunately, it also illustrates that COVID-19 doesn't respect geography.
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