Spotlight on Salon Supplies’ Ian Aherne
Join us for a chat about Recycle My Salon, sustainability and ‘coopetition’ with Salon Supplies’ Ian Aherne.
[Ian Aherne]
Hi, my name is Ian Aherne, and I am the managing director for Salon Supplies.
[Marc Carey]
It's good to speak to you. So you've got right behind this new scheme Recycle My Salon. How did you first get introduced to this?
[IA]
Well, I first became aware of the challenges of recycling through my involvement with the HBSA, the Hair and Beauty Suppliers Association. I think we realised straight away that recycling was an issue.
[MC]
Was it something that you'd been thinking about for a while? I mean, in the industry in general this is the tip of the iceberg in addressing sustainability, isn't it?
[IA]
It is the tip of the iceberg. We were aware that there was an issue that we didn't have the solutions to ourselves. It took a degree of collaboration I think with other companies in HBSA and the HBSA themselves to come up with a solution.
[MC]
You just mentioned the collaboration element to this. Do you think that having advocacy from key players in the industry, almost like a top-down approach, has been or will be one of the success factors for this scheme?
[IA]
Undoubtedly, I think the combination of the involvement from the HBSA as well as the involvement from a number of different companies, wholesalers and suppliers, and in some cases competitors, really shows the strength of the scheme. I think everyone has a vested interest in solving a problem that exists and everyone is working collaboratively, which is great. There's no conflict nor confusion about what needs to be done and I think it really speaks volumes to the quality of the people who work in the industry.
[MC]
It's keeping it as a simple and accessible project and in a way that people can understand. During COVID people were able to start looking and thinking about how to work on their business because they couldn't work in the business. Have you seen that from a grassroots level and also from the consumer level, where that message is becoming even stronger? As people are starting to think a little bit more broadly and are accessing the information about sustainability issues.
[IA]
That's definitely true. We've noticed a marked difference in the way that our customers are interacting with us about sustainability. It's something that comes up regularly as opposed to once in a blue moon and it's something that consumers and salons are becoming much more aware of. I think this whole scheme is coming at a perfect time.
[MC]
Have you ever seen any schemes like this in the past that have fallen over? And if so, why did they fall over?
[IA]
We've not had any schemes that we've been aware of as an industry. I understand there are other schemes out there and commercial operations that do salon recycling, which is great, but we've never had something that we felt is industry-led. It's working for the benefit of salons and for the benefit of both HBSA members and the industry in general. So for me, that's really its strength, the fact that so many people are involved and everyone is doing it on the basis of doing the right thing, not operating on commercial terms as we might in other parts of our business.
[MC]
We've heard the phrase "sustainability" bounce around for some time now and I think that people focus on the environmental aspects of it, but of course sustainability really is about maintaining sustainability from an economic and social perspective as well. So, it's making it simple and easy for those businesses on the ground but it's also got to make economic sense as well, hasn't it?
[IA]
Absolutely. I think historically, many many years ago, some things were cost prohibitive and I think that stopped a lot of people moving forward. As time has moved on I think things have become more accessible in terms of price and things have become more common.
[MC]
In terms of your own business, have you already been involved in sustainability or corporate social responsibility from your own internal perspective?
[IA]
We have, yes. We've been doing a number of different things. At a very basic level, we work with a number of suppliers whose packaging and materials come to us using recycled material and we tend to buy products that can be recycled. Over the last few years, more things have been happening. As we've been refurbishing our branches we've been moving to, for example, LED lighting and more efficient mechanisms for heating and cooling. We've just in the last few months brought out our first fully electric vans in part of our delivery fleet and we've been moving towards hybrid and electric vehicles as part of our main car fleet. It's becoming much more common that those subjects are at the top of the list. I think we're moving definitely towards a cleaner and environmentally sound position, from packaging to lighting, to cars, everything really,
[MC]
I think that's going to be part and parcel of the choice mechanism for the consumer in the future as well. I know I used to say when "Gen Z become consumers", but they are consumers now, it's like the generations are catching up with us. You know, the new breed of consumer, the new business owner, the new employees or employers that are coming through these generations, they've got access to a lot of knowledge through social media and websites. So there is this kind of Zeitgeist movement going on and I think that's going to be part and parcel of not only the unique selling proposition for a business but a unique value proposition, for consumers to make those choices. So as a business owner, it's also a savvy move, isn't it?
[IA]
I think so, yeah. I think if one was to just consider it as being all about marketing and promotion and let's say the right thing to do in the eyes of our customers, then yeah that's definitely true. Although it might be a little bit disingenuous. I think most of the people in our organisation and most of the people we've been speaking to at HBSA feel that we should be doing the right thing because we have a responsibility to do so for our customers, our suppliers and everyone in the chain. So yeah, it's a hot topic, but I think morally it's something we need to engage with and be proactive in as a business, irrespective of cost and what people think.
[MC]
In a sense, that's what brings the authenticity to the scheme, because otherwise it's just another greenwash episode where someone's using it as a marketing ploy.
[IA]
Marketing or no marketing, promotion or not, we want to do our bit and we hope that other wholesalers and people in the industry will do their bit, that’s the aim.
[MC]
What's on the horizon? What's the next thing to tackle in terms of sustainability?
[IA]
It's a good question. I think different forms of waste within the cell on our key and I think chemicals and the ingredients of some of the products that are used within hairdressing will no doubt continue to evolve. It feels difficult to see past the combination of aluminium and foil, and packaging waste materials at the moment because that mountain is so big, but I think it will extend to other materials in the salon and ultimately some of the chemicals and things that are being used. But I mean, it's difficult to see how that will commence and how far down the line that will be. Our company view of the scheme and my own view is that we will encourage all salons to be proactive in their recycling and whether they do this with us or with our competitors, we are very happy to support that. It doesn't matter what schemes they join as long as they join them. That would be the dream position for our customers and we will be heavily promoting that salons join a scheme such as this. We feel it's the right thing to do at all levels of the industry.
[MC]
There's a phrase that I heard recently and it was "coopetition", so this idea that we can collaborate with competition and do the things that are right. Now I don't know your industry that well but it's often that we see people just working in a silo, they like to keep things close to their chest and not share their innovation, so when people come together under schemes like this it starts to create behaviours that we've not seen in the industry in the past.
[IA]
That's a really good observation and I think the fact that the scheme has been facilitated by the HBSA and a group of members, both council level and wider membership, creates exactly that collaborative non-competitive working method. It's interesting because it's not that common for something like this to crop up. Certainly casting my mind back over the 18 years I've been in the industry I can't think of something that's had such a positive collaborative response across people who are typically competitors and I've been delighted with that. I would encourage all of our salons, as well as salons across the whole of the UK, to join the HBSA recycling scheme and to get involved with Recycle My Salon. We're very excited to be a supporter of the scheme and we are delighted to be involved with the HBSA, we'd encourage everyone to get involved as it's something that we think can make a real difference to the industry.
