Sacha discusses the future of toni & guy and toni's legacy

TONI & GUY’s global creative director Sacha Mascolo Tarbuck reveals how she wants her late father’s vision and legacy to live on and discusses her new business plan. Toni Mascolo and his brother Gaetano “Guy” Mascolo started TONI & GUY back in 1963 with a single salon in Clapham, London. Today the TONI & GUY legacy spans 50 decades, with more than 475 salons across 48 countries...

How do you want the industry to remember your father? My father was such a special person. He built a global brand with more than 600 salons around the world from one single salon with his brother Guy. It was his drive, passion and vision that made this company what it is today and created a vision and legacy that will live on in future. I wish for people to remember him as a pioneer, someone who changed the face of hairdressing with the franchise model approach and his commitment to education. More than anything though that he was a humble, hardworking, family man who was approachable and had time for everyone.

What is your three-year plan for Toni & Guy?  It’s to grow the business every year and to continue to invest in our people. Last year, over a six-month period, we organised a brainstorm session where several people came together from different areas of the business and were moderated by Eliza from King’s College. We spent the day deconstructing, discussing and deciding the direction of the brand. To begin with, we ran a SWOT analysis which forced us to be really honest about all of the things Toni & Guy does really well, where we need to improve, where the opportunities were and where we really need to up our game. 

Once we completed that part of the session, we identified categories where we would concentrate our efforts such as recruiting, staff retention, learning and development, communication, expanding our salon presence globally and increasing label.m awareness. We drafted a roadmap with achievable goals to ensure success in realising our three-year plan. It was brilliant to have all of those people around the table because it is a family-run business and everyone involved is part of our extended family.

What is the Toni & Guy Leadership Programme?  We worked in collaboration with Durham University Business School who are leaders in developing management talent to schedule a series of knowledge sharing workshops delivered over 18 months. Starting in April 2018 and ending in September 2019 with an achievement ceremony at the castle in Durham, the programme will become an integral part of all future manager’s development education.

What are your tips for juggling family life with running a business?  Surround yourself with people you trust and share the same vision because you know when you can’t be physically in the office, they will continue to steer the ship in the right direction and vice versa at home. If you absolutely love what you do everything will work out well.

Tell us about your upcoming campaigns? MainStage is back, which is the platform which will launch the campaigns to the press, industry and more than 3,500 members of staff. The Toni & Guy Legacy campaign is to honour my father, acknowledging the exceptional brand that he built and left behind for us to care for and grow. We’re also looking forward to having exciting people to sign up for the relevant courses taught in our 19 academies around the world.

What is your vision for Toni & Guy?  We are re-evaluating the business at the moment, between myself, my mum and brothers. As a family we are looking at every area of the business and harnessing the power of all of the positive assets we have, including our people, creativity and talented art teams from the past, present and future. We know there are challenges out there on the high-street and across the industry, but we also know that we have something really special in this brand, and it can only go up from here.

What's the secret behind your successful empire? Firstly, everything I learned about hairdressing, business, and success, I learned from my father. Without him there wouldn’t be an empire. We’ve been so privileged to work with amazing people throughout our 55-year history. It’s astonishing how many brilliant people have trained under Toni & Guy and are still with us 10, 15 or 20 years later as hairdressers, salon managers or franchise partners, media or have gone on to do other incredible things. We’re a family business, sticking together to make sure between myself, my mother and my brothers we are doing the best for the brand.

Get your tickets here for Salon International 2018, to see TONI&GUY MainStage on October 14th.