The British Beauty Council is launching a new campaign to encourage people to return to hair and beauty salons – and help get high street and city centre businesses back on their feet.
- more than 7,300 salons have gone out of business since March 2020
- 3 million fewer customers in salons since reopening in April 2021
- poster and social media campaign aim to bring back the joy of visiting salons
More than 7,000 salons in the UK have gone out of business since March last year following the forced closures in light of the pandemic; the British Beauty Council fears more businesses will suffer the same fate unless people start returning for treatments. While salons were able to reopen on 12 April 2021, they continue to run at 30 per cent less capacity due to Covid restrictions, resulting in more than 3 million fewer appointments than would have been otherwise.
Millie Kendall, chief executive of The British Beauty Council, says:
“We need to support the high street and city centre premises-based businesses. The personal care sector has not only struggled with the many months of closure and the on-going costs related to keeping their businesses alive – they are also not yet seeing the numbers of clients coming back to salons and stores that they had pre-Covid.
“We need to bring the joy back to beauty by encouraging clients to come back to experience the array of services we offer – most of these require immense skill and can’t always be replicated at home.”
The “Oh hello beauty’ poster and social media campaign, to be launched on 17 May 2021, aims to reverse the decline, by showing how beauty can help people feel their best.
The UK’s £30bn beauty industry was one of the sectors most heavily impacted by coronavirus measures, with hair and beauty salons closed for 140 days of lockdown. It employs more than 600,000 of which more than 80 per cent are women. Full-time equivalent employment numbers are down 21% on 2019 as staff hours were cut and redundancies made despite the furlough scheme. At £30bn, the beauty industry contributes more to the UK economy than pubs, which contribute £23bn a year.
Small Business Minister Paul Scully said: “The beauty sector is so crucial to our recovery from Covid, not only for boosting jobs and local high streets but also for the career opportunities it provides to so many young people, particularly women, and the uplift beauty treatments can give to people’s mental health and wellbeing.
“I have had two drastically-needed post-lockdown haircuts in the last year, so I know for myself how important it is to back these vital businesses and keep salons thriving.”
