Philippine Business Magazine: Volume 9 No. 4 - Cover
Short Cuts

David’s Salon
In 1978, the then 22-year-old David Charlton applied for a job at Rever Salon in HongKong. Instead of getting a post in HongKong, Charlton was assigned to the Rever Salon at the Mandarin Hotel in Manila. “I come from a family of hairdressers and so I decided to try my luck in the same field,” he said. “In four years, I was able to buy out the partners at Rever,” and in 1982, David’s Salon was born. Charlton started opening branches all over Metro Manila and even in Cebu. To date, David’s Salon has 145 branches all over the country.

Strictly speaking, though, David’s Salon branches are not pure franchises since Charlton still owns a percentage of the company. Nevertheless, it has the characteristics of a franchise, mainly that each branch has its own majority owner and functions as a separate company. Charlton prefers the present set-up so he has a direct control in maintaining standards of quality. The staff to be employed at the various branches have to undergo rigid training at the new training center Charlton put up in Makati City. The center is also a ready source of people to be dispatched to any branch which suddenly becomes short of staff.

Charlton had no difficulty in putting up additional branches because of the high quality of the country’s labor. According to Charlton, the Filipino’s techniques in hairdressing are at par with the United States and Europe. “The people here are more service-oriented and they can really compete with foreigners.”

In order to become one of Charlton’s business partners, one needs P3 million. Most partners prefer to be silent ones and simply coordinate with Charlton in the running of their branches. One very active partner, though, is Boots Bonifacio who not only owns the Katipunan branch of David’s Salon but also serves as David’s training director as well. David’s Salon’s phenomenal growth required the establishment of a full-time training department. The training center takes up two to three floors of the six-floor building Charlton put up in Makati City.

Bonifacio’s branch is managed by daughter Amihan Latinazo. But when she has the time, Bonifacio drops by the salon. A David’s Salon branch usually employs between 18 to 31 persons. A larger staff is required in the bigger branches, like the Katipunan branch, and those located in the shopping malls. In a good month, Bonifacio said she is able to make 20% of the gross at the minimum. This amount excludes the fees for training, advertising, and management fees. Seven percent of the gross goes to the mother company, DSI.

There seems to be no stopping the growth of David’s Salon as Charlton has plans of putting up branches in China and the United States, hopefully within the year. “We will need a lot of money for this and we are planning to bring in one of our top hairdressers for each of the branches we open abroad,” he said. “That hairdresser will be in charge of training the new ones.”