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Hair Salon keen to grasp city growth opportunity

Nathan Plumridge, of Energy Hair and Beauty in Topsham Road, Exeter, saw the arrival of fashion and beauty shops in Princesshay not as a threat but as a chance to build his business

Energy Hair and Beauty opened in 1999 as a joint venture between myself and my father Geoffrey, a stylist with 45 years' experience. There were just the two of us at the outset and we worked hard to establish a reputation for personal service and quality before we embarked upon expansion.

We had the advantage of a prime location on a main bus route and with private parking, and then by adding additional accomplished stylists the business thrived and our reputation began to build.

From the outset, we always employed our stylists instead of the common practice of renting them a chair. In this way, they enjoyed more security of tenure and felt much more part of the business.

This has helped with staff loyalty and in attracting the best talent.

We continued to grow over the years and now have 13 full-time stylists for both women and men, an innovative hair therapy experience and a wide range of beauty treatments and qualified advice.

Setting up a basic hair salon is not hard and takes little investment - that's why there are so many of them.

But ensuring you can deliver the very best and the very latest in superb surroundings is quite another matter and it is this identifiable "added value" which we have continuously sought to achieve.

We saw the development of Princesshay and the subsequent inward investment by a wide range of fashion, accessory and beauty product businesses as an opportunity, not a threat.

It prompted us to rethink and to ensure that if Exeter was going to be a centre of excellence in the beauty and fashion sector, we wanted to be a part of it.

The result was a £50,000 refurbishment of the salon to augment the hair and beauty treatments available with an appropriately memorable ambience.

In addition to quality styling and qualified beauty treatments, the salon now offers a new hair therapy experience dedicated to maintaining hair and scalp with highly specialised treatments for stressed or thinning hair.

We are also very proud that we are working with the cancer charity Force and the Oncology Unit at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital.

The salon will be fitting wigs and hairpieces for chemotherapy and alopecia sufferers.

Standing still is not an option for us. We intend to grow further and continually reinvigorate the way we do things.

Added value and a personal service that sticks in the memory are the keys to business success in our sector.