A Hair-Raising Enterprise

Manly Daily:

Peninsula hair salon entrepreneur John Brennan has been embarrassed in the past to receive accolades for creating one of the fastest-growing franchise operations in the country.

That’s because he believes its achievements to date pale into insignificance compared with his overall business goals.

“We’re nowhere near it yet,” he said. “I’d say we’re probably only 25 per cent of the way there.”

John Brennan and his wife, Jane, have built the Warriewood-based John Brennan Hair from one small, barber-style salon they opened in Mona Vale in 1991 to a chain of 36 in NSW and Victoria. The salons turn over almost $20 million a year and employ about 350 hairdressers.

But their founder still declines to put an ultimate ceiling on growth in an industry where only a couple of other players have gone down the franchising route in any significant way.

“I think Australia could handle somebody who has 200 salons,” he said.

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