Beauty Brands franchising fragrance, cosmetic shops; Don Fox, ex-Perry prez, in venture

Drug Store News, Feb 19, 1990 by Elizabeth Parks

Beauty Brands franchising fragrance, cosmetic shops

Don Fox, ex-Perry prez, in venture

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. -- Beauty Brands, a distributor of designer and domestic fragrances to independent drug stores, is planning to develop and franchise a chain of cosmetic and fragrance beauty shops.

President Don Fox, the former Perry Drug executive, said he hopes to open the first prototype store this summer in a mall location within metro Detroit. The prototype will be partly fashioned after a small six-unit chain of cosmetic stores that Beauty Brands acquired last year from a company called Special Cecille's.

The chain, currently made up of four mall kiosks and two 500-square-foot stores, has been renamed The Cosmetic Counter.

The original mix consisted of a limited assortment of private label color cosmetics, cosmetic accessories and an assortment of designer and domestic fragrances. Fox is modifying the mix, eying a broader assortment of color cosmetics, fragrances and accessories.

At the heart of the mix is a private cosmetics line, Special Feature. Fox plans to expand that line and add two more lines: one upscale and one for women of color. Fox isn't planning to carry any department store or mass color lines. He will focus instead on two or three private label cosmetic lines "with limited distribution, so we can offer something meaningful to our customers exclusively."

The final mix

Altogether, he thinks the final mix will be between 1,000 and 1,200 color SKUs, plus 1,000 SKUs of domestic and designer fragrances. The mix will also include a four-foot display of professional nail products, cosmetic brushes and bags. The moderately priced brushes will be pegged at under $3 retail; more upscale brushes will retail at $5 to $7. Hair jewelry, costume jewelry, and possibly fashion scarves and accessories will be part of the mix.

At press time, Fox was still putting together the manual and training programs for the franchised part of the business, which he expected to be up by mid-summer. He also anticipates signing leases and opening two company stores by next fall.

He estimated that initial franchises might cost about $100,000 to $125,000.

He anticipates first year sales per store at about $300,000, and $500,000 to $700,000 at maturity. Gross margins should range from 40 percent to 50 percent, depending on mix.

He thinks that franchisees would probably buy a lot of their product from the distribution side of Beauty Brands Business, although the contract will not stipulate where people have to buy anything.