A person’s appearance, whether they’d like to admit it or not, can often say quite a bit about them. From subtle and laid back to wild and untamed, and every look in between, appearance bears at least a small glimpse into an individual’s personality and uniqueness. And, when it comes to expressing oneself, a person’s choice of hairstyle and how they like to keep it can serve as one of the more significant ways by which they can represent themselves. As a result, the relationship between any individual and the people they trust to help them achieve their desired look is an intimate one, requiring a combination of experience, knowledge and skills. They are requisites for the role that Montreal-based Industria Coiffure easily meet. However, according to the company’s President and Co-Founder, Jean-Nicola Lapolla, supporting it all is the company’s willingness to remain on top of industry trends and styles.
“Hair styles, and the products that are used by professionals all over the world are constantly changing,” he says. “It requires hairstylists and retailers selling these products to be consistently aware of everything that’s happening within the industry, including all of the latest products as well as those that customers are seeking. It’s something that, as a business, we need to be completely on top of, resulting in the need for us and our team of expert hairstylists to constantly educate ourselves on anything related to developments and innovation within the world of hair style and fashion. Because of the speed at which trends occur within this industry, it’s imperative for salons and stylists to be as diligent as they can be concerning education.”
Foundational support
He says it’s one of the qualities of the company that has helped define its legacy over the years, as well as going a long way toward helping to carve its way forward. It’s a quality, among many others, that was engrained within the company when Lapolla’s father, Aldo, an immigrant hairdresser, began managing and developing the company at its original Place Ville Marie location back in the 1960s. An entrepreneur with an open mind and a love for people, Aldo Lapolla had a clear vision of what success meant for the company, adapting and evolving it with each fashion era and every change within the market. Jean-Nicola says that his father’s openminded approach and the importance he placed on communication laid the foundation for Industria Coiffure, enabling the operation to maintain its success for more than half a century.
“I grew up within the salon and the business,” says Lapolla. “Since the age of eight, I’ve been involved. When I wasn’t at school, I was at one of our locations. Whether I was sweeping the floor, manning the cash register, arranging appointments for customers, or anything else, I was actively involved and watching my father, learning every single day. It was the absolute best kind of training I could have ever wished for, preparing me to one day assume leadership of the company. He taught me the value of people and the way to treat our teams, customers of the salon and others operating in and around the industry, always stressing the importance of communication and the transfer of knowledge.”
Customer-focus
Today, coming up on 20 years since Jean-Nicola took over the business, Industria Coiffure operates 18 locations in Greater Montreal, including locations at CF Carrefour Laval, CF Fairview Pointe-Claire, CF Promenades St Bruno and Carrefour de l’Estrie, to name a few. It’s established itself through the years as the premier high-end destination for men and women in the province of Quebec looking to fulfill their hair needs, providing exceptional hairstyling services administered by expert professionals, while also carrying an extensive range of top hair care and other products, enjoying direct partnerships with brands including L’Oréal, Kérastase, Oribe, Redken, and others. In fact, 40 to 100 per cent of the space within the majority of Industria Coiffure’s locations house products. And the reason for this, explains Lapolla, has everything to do with the customer.
“We’re here to meet the needs of each customer that enters any one of our locations,” he asserts. “And because the service that we offer is so high-touch and so intimate, it enables us to develop really close, strong relationships with our customers, allowing us the opportunity to hear firsthand from them exactly what they’re looking for and what they want to achieve with each visit. As a result, and as an extension of our education, we’re able to offer expert advice to every customer and bring the products into the store that will help them maintain their look and take proper care of their hair. We’re all about transferring the knowledge that we have to our customers, helping them look and feel better.”
Education is key
Lapolla underscores the importance of education among his staff in order to share it with customers, differentiating Industria Coiffure from many of its competitors. However, another distinction about the hairstyling company that sets it apart is the fact that its locations are exclusively found within shopping centres. It’s a strategy that he explains came about fortuitously by way of the relationships that his father had made with mall landlord Cadillac Fairview, Ivanhoe Cambridge, Cogir and others. But it’s one that he describes as “unique”, providing the company with opportunities that it may not have enjoyed otherwise.
“Because our locations are found exclusively within shopping centres in Montreal, our perspective might be a little different from some of our competitors,” he says. “We have the opportunity to work with landlords and others within the shopping centres where we’re located to continuously enhance the experience that we’re offering. And, our legacy in malls has also perhaps made it a little easier to get in to the newly developed Royalmount, which could prove to be an excellent location for us. Being located in shopping centres also presents challenges, including very high lease prices. But we’re a company that’s never been afraid of risk. You need to be comfortable with a certain degree of risk and pressure or you won’t succeed in this business.”
Continued evolution and success
Lapolla goes on to explain that the company intends to continue to build on the solid reputation that it’s made for itself in the province of Quebec, with plans to evolve the brand further through the introduction of its Boutique and Hair concept. The Industria Coiffure Boutique, located at Place Rosemère in Rosemère represents the next big step for the company, says the company’s President, providing the blueprint for the brand to follow over the course of the next few years. The concept, he explains, is ultra-high-end, boasting the widest range of hair care and cosmetics products possible and features consultations administered by trained experts who provide advice to visitors concerning all things hair and style. It’s a direction that he says the company is working really hard to roll out to all of its locations as quickly as possible.
“Our Boutique concept is beautiful and really conveys the future of the Industria Coiffure brand well. All of our experience with our customers and brand partners went into this decision, guiding our direction. It’s required a lot of financial investment to this point, and so, our challenge moving forward is replicating the incredible experience inside our Boutique to all of the other locations within our company. In order to do this, to take the company to the next level and expand our service and offering, we’re looking for partners. With some help, it will enable us to standardize all of our stores, shift our marketing, and continue to evolve the brand to enhance our reputation as a leader within the salon and hair industry.”
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