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A New Era for Reef Salons

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Reef Salons
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Reef Salons, situated within the stunning Ramside Hall Hotel in Durham is now completely owned by hairstylist extraordinaire, Joanne Clift.

With over 18 years experience within the hairdressing industry, Joanne’s career began with Saks, in which she progressed from an apprentice to a top Style Director holding a L’Oreal Colour Specialist Degree.

In 2008, Joanne took a break to become a full time mum and raise her two children before heading back into the industry as an educator with BL Hairdressing & Training. This period was a real eye opener for Joanne. Travelling to salons all across the North East, she got to see the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to running a successful salon. Leaving education behind, Joanne joined GHD as an account manager visiting salons across the North East, Teeside and North Yorkshire. This role provided her with great insight into the mindset of salon owners, clients, staff and suppliers.

March 2018 saw the biggest opportunity to come Joanne’s way – acquiring a 50% share in a salon and becoming Director. Here begins her time at Reef Salons.

Once I joined Reef, the day to day running of the salon gave me further opportunities to add value and improve the customer experience, as well as spending time engaging with the current staff and adding a further stylist to increase revenue. Since I joined the salon, turnover has increased by 20% for the same corresponding period in 2017, and this increase is solely down to the hard work and commitment of the Reef staff who I can’t thank enough. They have excelled and matched my expectations and on occasion, exceeded them!

The last ten months has seen a massive change, not only with increasing client numbers, turnover and excellent feedback, but the morale of the staff has been the one thing I have been most impressed by, colleagues who are so committed to Reef that they are willing to go even further than an extra yard.

In January 2019 Joanne and her partner acquired the remaining 50% of Reef, allowing her to own the salon outright and take full control. Joanne’s partner and joint shareholder is not involved on the salon floor, but has a wealth of experience within business, owning a company for the last 20 years turning over £17 million.

So, what does the future hold for Joanne and the team at Reef?

I would like to see Reef as the number one choice for hair salons in Durham. We also have plans for further expansion to other areas of the North East. In order to achieve our plans, we will not only continue to invest in staff education to ensure clients are serviced by the very best professionals within our industry, but we will employ more like-minded professionals who can assist us in achieving our plans, but at the same time match staff personal development.

Our journey to date has been matched step by step with our very important partners. Our partners include, L’Oreal, Oribe, Nanokeratin, GHD, tangle teezer and Invisibobble. Reef has partnered with L’Oreal for the past 17 years and will continue to invest in training to ensure our clients use the best products. We further enhanced our product portfolio by introducing award-winning brand, Oribe. This amazing brand, renowned with the hair obsessed, has sparked deep connections with its consumers and it continues to sell well beyond expectations. Nanokeratin has also proved an excellent partner providing clients with further choice in smoothing products. GHD continue to partner with Reef and provide us with the latest products before they are brought to market.

The future looks very interesting for clients and staff at Reef Salons. Watch this space…