Ministry of Waxing plots 15 UK salons by 2019

Singapore-owned salon and retail group Spa Esprit has outlined plans to open 15 salons across the UK over the next five years under its specialist brands Ministry of Waxing and Browhaus.

The group’s creative director Jerry De Souza has relocated to London and its managing director Cynthia Chua has moved to Paris to fuel the expansion, which will also include launches in key European cities including Berlin and Paris.

The group currently has 42 Ministry of Waxing and 30 Browhaus salons internationally, including three in the UK, all in London.

In the UK, the group will focus on more London sites before opening in key cities nationwide.

It relocated and expanded its Covent Garden salon in March, which is now on Neal Street, and Chua said the next openings would be on nearby Great Queen Street, then Kings Road, Chelsea, which is likely to be a flagship.

Following this, cities including Liverpool and Manchester are on her target list.

The majority of salons will be dual branded, focusing on hair removal under the Ministry of Waxing brand and on brow and lash treatments at Browhaus. 

“London is exciting for us because I think if you’re really good in Asia you need to be competing in London and New York,” said Chua. “We started in London in 2009 but it was slow but now the operations are really solid and in Singapore, we can move here and grow things much more quickly.”

The company’s salons are run as joint ventures or franchises and each has its own separate identity. The new Neal Street site, for example, takes inspiration from the Forbidden City palace in Beijing, while its Mayfair salon is set to relaunch this month with a tongue in cheek sex shop theme alongside which the group will launch a “practice safe waxing” campaign to highlight its strong hygiene standards.