Exodus strikes at beauty franchise

ALL the franchisees of beauty company Brazilian Beauty have left to start their own rival brand.

Ten former franchisees — eight in southeast Queensland and two from other states — have opened the doors to their own newly created brand, Complete Skin & Beauty.

Complete Skin & Beauty spokeswoman Helen Clifton said it was a mutually agreed exit after 18 months of talks.

“We wanted to take a different direction from the franchisor,” she said. “There was a legal agreement that allowed us to exit. Often these things end up in dreadful court cases but that didn’t happen and we can now carve our own path.”

The new Complete Skin & Beauty clinics are at Ashgrove, Albany Creek, MacArthur Central, Mango Hill, Springfield Central, Mount Gravatt, Fairfield Gardens and Keperra in southeast Queensland, Woden in the ACT and Bendigo in Victoria.

Brazilian Beauty was founded by Francesca Webster and, according to its website, before the franchisees exited it had 20 clinics, 17 of which were in southeast Queensland.

With the mass exit, Brazilian Beauty is left with 10 corporate clinics. According to the LinkedIn account of former general manager Andrew Bryant, Brazilian Beauty had annual revenue of $12m and employed more than 120 staff.

Ms Clifton said all 10 of the former franchisees who make up Complete Skin & Beauty sought a “bold new brand structure” that aimed to provide the benefits of being in a large group with the flexibility to better service the local community and drive team development. She said while there would be strong brand consistency, owners would also have the flexibility to choose products and services that better serviced their local clients or their team members.