New salon - Londons Biggest shopping centre

[bishop59]

In short we are opening a salon in the White City shopping centre being built by Westfields Westfield - LONDON. It is being designed to be the most prestigious centre in London and is equivalent in size to Bluewater. It is in the heart of West London - arguably the Wealthiest region in London and is attracting designer names such as Louis Vuitton to open their own unit for the first time in a shopping centre.
We want to give the nail bar out on a rent or percentage or a mix of rent\percentage basis to a team of 2-3 really high quality nail technicians.
This is an expensive place to do business but the footfall will be high and affluent.
Those contacting me maust be good nail technicians - business minded - be prepared to create their own brand and publicise their bar - you can use a current brand if you wish ie OPI or another name.
We can discuss terms but to give you an idea of the costs involved it will cost us over £500 per square foot to do business there (This figure is arrived at when you look at rent, rates, service charge, electric, phones, water, legal fees). The space you will be given will be 2 possibly 3 manicure stations in a similar style to nails inc outlets in dept stores - ie small positions. For those bold enough to take this opportunity it may be the one chance you get to have an operation like this in a prestigious location. You will have to be committed for the long run as we will take a deposit no matter which arrangement we come to.
You will have to put thought into your name - the image you want to portray - very likely you will have to use the services of a professional designer for your leaflets.
Why will clients come to you - what will be your unique selling point?
Maybe you are competition winners - or have been placed highly in a competition.
Terms will be negotiated so I cannot say exactly what they will be - the more risk you are willing to take the better it will be for you.

 

[Vintage Tech]

OK, it seems like no one is going to respond here but, I may be just looking too soon.
I don't know if you are talking about an annual amount of cost to you, or if you are talking a monthly figure. OR are you just hypothetically saying that is the cost to you, emphasising the upscale nature of this enterprise. Unless you are looking to assimilate most of that cost, then it would be completely unrealistic to think that two to three Nail Techs could cover that kind of price.
I am in the states, and so I am somewhat ignorant as to the value of a service, but I browse this site regularly to keep up with the rest of the world. I have been a Nail Technician for twenty four years. I am an industry educator, and competition level platform artist.
I know that a full set in your part of the world, runs anywhere from 20-30. So, in an extremely high scale area, the value may be higher, but lets just say that you could get 60. Lets say you were booked with three techs covering a total of 216 business hours per week. Thats 12 hours per day six days per week.(impossible without doubling the stations with additional techs, but remember, you want only the best, and the best will not, under any circumstatces, share space, because they are artists) So once again, lets assume you are booked every minute of that 216 hours. That equals almost 13,000 pound per week. You would have to pay out about 65% of that to the techs. (if you are working on a percentage basis) That leaves you with around 4550 to cover your "costs". Which is a monthly figure of 19,565. Every state or country has regulations which also have a minimum amount of space per tech. Here in the states that is 150 square feet per. So you will need to allow 450 square at the minimum, and that is if you offer no pedicure area. 450 square is at your cost, 225,000 per (YEAR?) which breaks down to roughly, 18,750 per month. So you see, unless you are doing this to attract clientele, and kind of sucking it up, so to speak, you will not profit. Keep in mind that you will not be booked all the time even with a ton of footfall. AND if you are trying to attract an upper clientele, then they will not want a jiffy type set-up. That echelon of individuals want pamper, and fluff ! The only way for this proposition to work at all is to rely on retail as your base, and let the technicians attract the high Dollar clientele. Pay the technicians well (very well) and hope for bloody spectacular sales!!!! I am not trying to step on toes, but it just seems to try and recover 500 per square, even annually, would be almost impossible for a service such as nails.

Let's hear from you geeks! Is this scenario do-able? Am I missing something? If it is do-able then I may need to move to London!!:lol:

 

[bishop59]

Nails will be a part of the salon not the whole salon. There are no rules as such that stipulate you must have 150 sq foot per therapist in the UK that I know of. Leading department stores in London have nail bars with 5 -6 therapists in that space.

Top nail locations charge £70 for a full set. 30 minute manicures are usually £25 if not more. In short you are looking at 80p to £1 per minute for manicures - not including offers and discounts.

If we had nothing but 2 manicure stations we would not use more 50-60 square foot. With High footfall locations such as these Department Stores and shopping centres its the quality that is important.

You will be able to use the wall area behind you to promote your brand. We want a specialist unit within the salon - not an extra that we provide. All the literature will be your own.

As an idea of costs if you go on shopproperty.co.uk - Listing prime shops to let, available retail units and retail space around the UK and looked up units in Brent Cross Shopping Centre - the other major centre in london you will see that rents are around 250-300 per square foot. to This you need to add rates - another 100 per square foot.
Also service charge, electric, phones, reception etc



The whole venture is a 150k project. Nails forms a part of the project - not the whole project.

 

[nailzoo]

Westfield are known in Aus for being quite ruthless with tenants, taking a percentage of their takings, centrally linked cash registers and no exclusivity, my local Westfield had 6 nail salons (all NSS) when it first opened (down to 4 now) this will be an interesting thread to watch.

 

[bishop59]

Hi

Shopping Centres in General have strict terms. We have to do produce Monthly Accounts The risk to anyone doing the nails is reduced here as they will not be taking out the whole unit. We will be taking on that risk. One advantage here is we get in at the beginning. Every venture has a risk. I have not tried to hide this fact. By doing it this way the risk for both parties is reduced -However we still carry the risk for the unit. The lease will be in our name. the risk that the individual(s) will carry will be for the nail section only and it will not be for 10 years. We have to guarantee the 10 year lease.
So if you wanted to do it yourself the risks are far higher.

 

[Vintage Tech]

I am going to get away from this thread, but, I have to add one thing. I never indicated that you were trying to front an entire salon on nail revenue alone. It's just that , sometimes Nails as a service is misunderstood. A top notch Stylist (hair) in an upscale environment can gross around 5 or maybe 6 times the revenue as a nail tech. We can only produce one at a time, and if you are looking for upscale (which I assumed) then you cannot offer a NSS (non standard salon) experience for your clientele. I have had vast amounts of experience in this arena, and have owned a very large, upscale, dayspa with a cafe totaling 6000 square ft. I am well aware of the costs to open and maintain a large venture such as yours. Your other services, as well as, retail may have to support this venture for the most part. Nails is a real attraction for the upscale woman, but, it will not pay the bills in the salon. Nails will, however, bring in the clients who will pay for laser hair removal, or, high dollar chemical services in the hair salon, or, massage, or micro-derm, or many other high dollar items. Clients will also ante up for things such as boutique gifts, and fad items. I was saying that you need nails as a part of your business plan to attract your patrons, but, you may need to rethink how you are going to get the best techs and what you are going to charge them because they will want to make a high volume of income and may be able to do that right where they are. There must be an attraction for them. Much luck to you in your venture.