Camille Albane Hair Salon - Franchise

Popular and upscale European salon makes French beauty accessible to prime Middle America
When women want to look beautiful, they most often turn to France.  French beauty trends lead the fashion and hair-care industries for good reason: French women make looking stunning effortless.

Camille Albane is a leading European hair salon with more than 300 locations in over 15 countries.  The $75 billion a year hair care industry in the U.S. is growing, and Camille Albane is one of the best bets in an already stable industry.  We are expanding into the US, and our high average customer ticket - typically $90 or more - translates into a potentially lucrative business.

History Behind The Name
Our salons' namesake, Camille Albane, was a prominent Parisian stylist who worked with Jacques Dessange in the 1970s.  She was so successful, they spun off her signature brand in 1994 on the Rive Gauche (the Left Bank of Paris) and franchised the concept.  Camille Albane salons became know as the place where a woman could not only to update her style but also to be treated like a VIP.  Our upscale salon franchises celebrate the expression of every client's unique beauty through hair, makeup, nail services and retail products.

DESSANGE Group North America also owns Fantastic Sams, an affordable full-service salon franchise that is the largest of its kind in the U.S. and a leading provider of color services.  The combined locations of DESSANGE, Fantastic Sams and Camille Albane salons is more than 1,800 worldwide.

What makes Camille Albane special?
Camille Albane, which opened the U.S. flagship salon on Boston's fashionable Newbury Street in 2013, is a sophisticated salon franchise known for cutting-edge hairstyles, state-of-the-art color techniques, hair and scalp treatments, manicures, makeup applications and bridal consultations.  We make every client feel like a VIP.  Because of our client care protocol, our biannual makeup and hairstyle collections and our proprietary hair-care innovations, Camille Albane has carved out a unique niche in the salon marketplace.

Innovative
"We're not just a brand, we're a brand that creates our own techniques - techniques you've never seen before and that you can't get anywhere else," says Maria Cavard, General Manager of Camille Albane in North America.  "For instance, we invented the Balayage technique - painting of the hair without foil.  No one does it better than us, and every woman who comes in and has it done never wants to go back to highlights with foil."  The technique is popular at elite European salons, and now it will be available at Camille Albane for our prime demographic - the trendy, urban American woman aged 25-40.

Color services are increasingly important as Baby Boomers and Gen X'ers are spending more to look younger while younger women are spending more on fun, funky experimental color.  In our industry, color is a big driver behind an 8% growth in sales each year.

Pampered
The Camille Albane woman knows what she wants.  She comes to us because we're a fashion-forward brand.  We're a global salon that offers hair, makeup and nail services to every client who walks in - she never has to ask.  We give her coffee or tea, a French pastry, a hand massage, an assistant.  We do her hair, her manicure and pedicure, her makeup.  When she walks out, she is ready from head to toe to take on anything that might come her way.  "We make her feel like she's the most wonderful woman in the world," says Maria.

Startup
The startup costs for a Camille Albane franchise are typically $250,000, and franchise candidates should have a minimum liquidity of $90,000 and a net worth of at least $250,000.  We are seeking franchisees who love design and understand the upscale salon niche - salons like Tony and Guy, Regis or Aveda.  While there's a lot of low-end competition, the upscale salon franchise market is more open.  That makes this an excellent time to become a Camille Albane franchisee.  We are already planning to open five franchise salons in Dallas and five franchise salons in Minneapolis, and we're excited to bring on more new franchisees to continue exploring new territories in the U.S.

The Business Model
Camille Albane salon owners enjoy multiple revenue streams for their business:

• Hair: Our salons offer the best and latest in hair care: fashion-forward styles like the long bob; defrizzing treatments; extensions; highlights, touch-ups and all-over color. Camille Albane stylists are highly educated in the latest skills in addition to pioneering proprietary systems like the Balayage color technique.

• Makeup: Camille Albane licensed cosmetologists will expertly apply a client's makeup and then allow her to buy the products so she can reproduce the look at home. The line, refreshed twice a year, includes eye shadow, mascara, bronzer, lipstick and nail polish.

• Nails: Fewer things in life feel more like a luxury than a manicure/pedicure. It's even more special when a client also can get her hair and makeup done at every appointment.

• Retail Products: Camille Albane knows clients want to look great between visits, so we've created an upscale product line designed to make that easy, including custom-blended shampoos with added pigments, nutrition-enhanced facial masques and shea and keratin restorative treatments.