Editor’s Comment

With the news this month that the continuing uncertainty around Brexit is impacting both investor and consumer confidence in the beauty industry (see page 16), it’s heartening to hear that some international companies are still choosing the UK for their European flagships. Find out more about Taj Hotels’ new Londonbased Jiva Spa on page 13.

Meanwhile some homegrown businesses are powering ahead with major expansion plans. Surrey-based nail and wax specialist Mooeys has secured its first two franchises and is on the path to national growth (see page 13).

For more inspiring business models from the UK and further afield, check out our coverage of the winners from the Professional Beauty and World Spa & Wellness Awards 2019. These 22 outstanding spas, salons and individuals fought off exceptional competition, so we’ve delved deeper into each business to find out why our expert industry judges felt they were worthy of their titles. See page 103 for more.

Of course, while awards and recognition are an amazing end result, the foundations of success in the salon world are built on the less sexy stuff, like setting realistic goals and calculating return on investment, particularly when it comes to equipment with a big initial outlay. Our feature on body-shaping devices on page 81 explores how three businesses made the investment work for them, from calculating risk, to creating profitable packages. And for advice on securing return on your biggest investment of all – payroll – take a look at the five KPIs Hellen Ward uses to measure performance on page 45, and find out how analysing all five as a whole could help your own path to growth.