Boardroom has 44 men's haircut salons and is preparing to restart franchise growth.
Boardroom, a 21-year-old upscale men’s grooming and styling company, recently acquired Finley’s Barbershop. After expanding mainly with corporate units, Boardroom is ready to file its first franchise disclosure document in more than a dozen years.
Boardroom Styling Lounge underwent a lot of changes this year, and its new CEO is hoping they lead to growing customer membership and ignite further development for the 21-year-old brand.
The upscale men’s grooming and styling salon business that was founded by Bruce and Heather Schultz in in 2004 acquired another Texas-based men’s hairstyling business in April. It is also about to file its first franchise disclosure document in more than a dozen years.
Jeff Helfgott, who took over as Boardroom CEO in December, said his company will not rebrand newly acquired Finley’s Barbershop and its 10 Texas locations between Austin and Dallas. Instead, it will allow the three-decades-old business founded by Darren Petersen and Scott Finley to operate as a standalone entity and retain the name of its co-founder while providing it central marketing and operations support including payroll and online scheduling.
Jeff Helgott took over as Boardroom CEO in December.
Petersen will continue to lead the daily operations of Finley’s as president while Finley, who the concept is named after, is retiring after 30 years in the business, said Helfgott.
“Joining forces with Boardroom gives us the opportunity to grow faster, elevate the client experience and deliver even greater value to the customers who’ve supported us along the way,” Peterson said in a statement announcing the acquisition.
Helfgott confirmed Boardroom will file its first franchise disclosure document in 13 years as soon as next week. The company has 44 locations and employs more than 480 salon professionals in seven states. All but six of its locations are corporate owned.
“Our plan is to grow through a blend of corporate stores and then franchising because my general philosophy is that there's no substitute for a great local operator that has that fire in their belly, that's willing to invest their weekends building relationships and is going to work really hard. This brand will only get better as a result of franchisees, and that’s why I’m excited for this brand’s future,” said Helfgott, who before Boardroom was the CEO of a Texas aesthetics platform company and worked in private equity.
Helfgott pointed out the company’s six franchise locations are all operated by franchisees who signed agreements after the company launched its franchise system in 2007. He said the company closed two corporate locations in the last year, the most recent one in Austin, Texas, last week because of a billing lease expiring.
He said that the company’s new FDD will report average gross sales for the company’s franchise locations were $970,478 in 2024, a 5.8 percent increase from 2022, when the average unit volume came in at $917,281.
The initial investment range for Boardroom is between $539,600 and $734,300, which includes licenses for three salons and the build cost for one salon.
“We’ve had three straight years of same-store sales growth with our franchisees. Our franchise locations are really doing well compared to the rest of the industry,” Helfgott said. “Our membership growth is helping drive a lot of our success and development.”
Helfgott said Boardroom offers a number of membership levels for its customers starting at $45 per month; memberships now account for more than 40 percent of its overall business. Finley’s locations do not offer a membership model at this time, but he said that will likely change as the company continues to get integrated into the Boardroom system.
“We’ve had a lot of success with our membership model, with it being fine-tuned through a pilot program we started and is now offered in most markets with pricing ranging from $45 to $60 per month,” said Helfgott. He pointed out his first job was sweeping up the hair in a local barbershop in Connecticut.
“I’m thankful I got to start my professional career and learning the importance of relationships and earning your right to be a part of that community experience. That’s the mindset that we’re bringing to our expansion,” he said.
Los Angeles-based LightBay Capital acquired Boardroom in 2018. The private equity firm’s portfolio includes Propelled Brands, the umbrella company for Fastsigns, My Salon Suite, Nerds to Go and Camp Bow Wow.
