Spotlight on Procare’s Joe Barry

Join us as we chat all things sustainability with Procare’s CEO Joe Barry.

[Marc Carey]

So with me now is Joe Barry, CEO of Procare Hair Foils, procarehairfoils.com is their website if you want to find out a little bit more about the business. Tell me a little bit about your business, Joe.

[Joe Barry from Procare]

Procare is based down in Bristol and we are the largest manufacturer of hair foil in the UK along with other hair care products, and we've been in business for over 30 years.

[MC]

Have you seen an increase in the requirement for hair foils? Are people taking a little bit more time with the colouring? There are lots of colour trends going on, aren't there?

[JB]

Absolutely. Over the last number of years, we've seen an increase in sales not only in the UK but we export quite a lot of product as well. So yeah there are lots of different trends, but ultimately what customers and hair stylists are looking for is very high quality foil for colour placement.

[MC]

In terms of the foils that you supply, is this something that you've thought about for some time, in terms of the waste that comes from this particular stream?

[JB]

Yeah, absolutely. We're very excited about this scheme. With the waste that we generate here in our manufacturing facility we already separate that and send it off to the recyclers. However, what's exciting about this is obviously we sell a lot of hair foil, it goes through the wholesalers and distributors to the hair salons, and then currently there isn't a cost-effective way of recycling from the salons. That's why we are big advocates and have been right from the outset with this scheme.

[MC]

I guess that's one of the interesting things about this scheme. Once you make something easy and accessible, then it's more likely to be picked up and taken forward. Is the simplicity of this something that's going to make it a success. 

[JB]

Absolutely. I was just recently at Salon International and we had a number of hairstylists and salon owners come on to our stand, and more and more their clients are asking about sustainability. I think what's so great with this scheme is that the HBSA have come together with a lot of the key stakeholders, looked at what the challenges in the market are, and we've come up with a really coherent strategy to implement this at an affordable cost to the salons and the salon owners.

[MC]

I mean that's going to be one of the really important factors I think, to add the kudos when you're in the industry. If you've got the industry leaders, like yourself and the HBSA behind this, then you can see a top-down approach as well as a grassroots approach. Do you think it's important that we come at this from both angles?

[JB]

I do, absolutely. We need to do everything that we can, here internally but as an industry by getting together with a very coherent plan, then I think that that's a stronger message.

[MC]

I think we've seen that change generally across the corporate sector, certainly with Corporate Social Responsibility coming to the fore now. In terms of my reference to the grassroots approach, the consumer and particularly the millennials and the Gen Zed have a lot more access to information, particularly through social media. Do you think this is something that you've seen as influencing those consumers?

[JB]

Absolutely. I think more and more consumers are looking at suppliers and wanting to understand what they're doing from a social responsibility angle. You know, most companies have got websites and put a lot of information out there, but it's more and more important to have a clear message of what we are doing both individually and as an industry. I mean, what we're doing here at Procare is a lot more onshoring, so rather than buying lots of materials from the other side of the world, where possible, we're trying to source closer to home. In fact, we have quite a big investment program going on right now, we are actually going to be manufacturing locally. I think that's what the consumers are looking for. They're looking for a very clear sustainability strategy from manufacturers, as well as having a very good quality good service. I think if we can marry all of that together, then the customers are going to be a lot happier.

[MC]

As you mentioned there, if there's a cohesive strategy then it doesn't start to look like greenwash. There are a lot of organizations that are using the green banner to try and sell more products and actually when you look under the surface, the impact of their work towards sustainability is fairly minimal. When you get a cohesive strategy where everyone's coming together and saying "well, this is part of the solution", I think that gives it a little bit more credibility.

[JB]

Yeah, I can't agree more. The HBSA has bought a lot of the key suppliers together, who have got lots of different needs, but everyone has a voice, everyone's been able to table their thoughts and learn from each other as well. Bring that all together and have one strategy for the industry. I think it's very powerful

[MC]

Most definitely. So, coming back to the Recycle My Salon scheme, is there perhaps a phrase or word that you think sums up your thoughts about this scheme?

[JB]

I think the best phrase that sums it up is really that it's industry-led, as we've been talking about earlier. It's one coherent strategy for the industry, rather than lots of different angles and strategies from lots of different suppliers.

[MC]

Yeah, and then there's that cohesive narrative that everybody can buy into.

[JB]

Can't agree more. So that's why we're very excited about it. Originally we were looking at doing this ourselves, but it makes much more sense for it to come from the industry and be industry-led.

[MC]

And so from your perspective, Joe, trends come and go obviously, is there a kind of cyclical nature to your industry, do we see these trends that start to emerge again? Or do you think that some of these environmental and social issues are going to create new trends?

[JB]

At the end of the day, what we believe is that the customers want high-quality products on time. So we've decided, as I mentioned earlier, to manufacture locally as much as we can. I really do see that as a trend because I think as we all know, during this pandemic, you only have to go and look to see some empty shelves. If we can bring back some of the manufacturing that went offshore over the last number of years I think that's going to give our customers this service that they require and I see that as a trend. I think from the environmental standpoint as well it's better. Yes, there are lots of different trends coming through but ultimately, the product has to perform and it needs to be of the highest quality. I think the customers also expect us to make sure that we audit all of our supply chains from a social responsibility standpoint, and with what's happened over the last couple of years that makes it very difficult if you're buying from a lot further afield.

[MC]

Yes, again, that quality but not at a cost in terms of environmental or social implications. Well look Joe, thank you so much for joining us today. It's been a real pleasure. Have you got any closing thoughts that you'd like to share?

[JB]

What we're looking forward to at Procare is just getting this scheme implemented. Hopefully this is going to be implemented in February. You know, we're just one part of this but I think this is just the start and I'm sure there'll be further schemes going forward. So I've talked a little bit about reducing carbon footprint by onshoring but we're doing lots of little things here, whether it just be using LED lighting or electric forklifts. We're looking at sustainability from all different angles and throughout all of our manufacturing, and we're working with our supply partners on using higher recycled content materials as well. So those are other initiatives that we're really pushing.