INSPIRING BRANDS

BY LOUISE MAY

Carmelo Francese, the owner and founder of Inspire Brands, is a name you may already know due to his incredible career in the hair industry.

His story started very simply many years ago as a teenager, and unsure what direction to take in life, he ended up starting a job with a Retail business called Priceline. “I started in stores, and within a year was moved to Head Office in a buying role. Within 6 years I was heading up the Beauty Division and for some reason Skin and Hair was where I was leaning my focus. When the company purchased Price Attack in 2000, I was made GM of that business and cut my teeth on Professional Haircare.”

Louise spoke to Carmelo about his past achievements and his new love, Gamma+

Can you tell us a little more about your background?

Well, after 6 years I parted ways with Price Attack and decided to do it on my own. I had built up a great network both within Australia and globally, enabling me to start my own distribution business. After, 4 years and a few health scares I was finally able to establish a business in Australia, taking on some major International Brands, whilst also developing our own local Australian-made products.

It was at this stage I reassociated with a long-time friend in Ross Caia (a Hairdresser with over 40 Years’ Experience) as one of my business partners, starting a separate company. Through this relationship, I established a close association with Corey Farrugia (co-owner of SalonWorld) and started another business.

Inspire Brands was then born, to communicate all our businesses under one banner. In choosing a Company name we had to work out what we stood for. This was easy, because we are all about these 4 principles PASSION / INNOVATION / KNOWLEDGE /COLLABORATION and through these platforms, we were able to focus on our strengths of Hair and Skincare Brands, where we could liaise our customers our full portfolio whilst segmenting brands to certain industries.

Over the span of your career, what pivotal moments or decisions have contributed most significantly to your success as a global strategist in retail and wholesale developments?

In life, there are people and decisions that have a significant impact in who you are as a person. For me, the people I consider my life mentors are, my father, whose values of honesty and hard work were instilled in me, and my business mentor Jack Goldin, a South African entrepreneur who was able to guide me through the retail landscape.

At the age of 22 I was offered to be a shareholder in a Hospitality business, which I had been in from an early age, the decision not to go ahead proved to be the right one as the business didn’t go well.

In 2006 leaving a secure corporate role to embark on my own business, when I had a young family was one of those “What the hell are you doing?”, moments.

Could you give us insight into the selection process for brands under the Inspire Brands banner, particularly focusing on the Gamma+ ranges?

Not being a Global brand, customers have choices on whether they buy your brand, as we don’t have the marketing dollars to support our brands that these multinationals have. It has always been our strategy to find or create brands with a point of difference, for example, Hemp Worx was the first Hemp Seed oil-based Body Care range in the Retail Sector.

Bio Magic is the only retail hair colour with its own colour swatch on every box. Gamma+ continues to come out with original unique designs. Australia, maybe far from the rest of the world, but we are over-marketed when it comes to Beauty brands, so to find or develop a brand in our market that is successful is not only about the brand but also about the relationships with your customers, you need to harness all this to make sure that you get cut through.

You have just secured the distribution rights for Gamma+ in India. What are your plans for the brand over there?

India is an interesting market, many Brands have tried to crack this market and failed. The question we keep being asked is why India? Knowing a little about this market and having a very good friend for over 30 years running a multi-million dollar company over there, we have insights that others may not.

Our strategy with India is to target the A-Class Salons and Barbers as Gamma+ will be a premium offer in the marketplace. Like Australia, we will look at a number of core pillars in developing the market.

- Develop a Team of Key Professionals who are recognised in the Industry as Influencers

- Focus on Education

- Deliver Differentiated products that the market has not seen before.

- Supported by a Local Team of Industry Experts with E-Commerce playing a big component.

Long term, Inspire Brands Australia and India will be able to leverage expertise from both countries in ensuring that we deliver the best offer to each market.

Jordan Tabakman is embarking on a tour for Gamma+, could you tell us a little about that?

Our association with Jordan started back in April 2023, since then we as a business and on a personal note have really connected with each other. He is a determined and visionary young man who has had challenges throughout his life, however family has helped guide him to who he is today. Today Jordan is the preeminent Barber in Australia and soon to be India. With Gamma+ alongside him, we have managed to build a Team of Educators and Barbers to support him and deliver on the Best of Gamma+.

2024, is a busy year for both Jordan and Gamma+, late April will see him head to Delhi where he will open his 1st Barber Club India, with plans on many more to come. On his return, we launch Get Boosted which will take the Gamma+ brand further ahead in the Australian Barbering Market.

The BIG news though, with our collaboration is that we will be taking Gamma+ to India, launching the brand in May 2024, with a Roadshow in 4 major cities. On this roadshow, Jordan will be joined by some of India’s elite Hairdressers and Barbers who are Indian Royalty.

One of the objectives that as a business we have is to replicate the success that we have had on the Barbering side with Jordan and the team and put together a similar team on the Hairdressing side, we know that we have the right tools to do this, now it’s about finding the key Industry experts that are open to working with us, we are speaking to a key individual who we can’t speak about now, but looking at making an announcement soon.

The “Get Boosted Launch” event in Melbourne sounds exciting. Could you tell us more about what attendees can expect?

Within the Gamma+ Portfolio of product the Boosted Clipper has by far been the Biggest success. Launched in Oct 2022 this Clipper has outsold any other Clipper in the market and is still much sort after by both Experienced and New Barbers.

Now Gamma+ are extending their family of Boosted products to include a Trimmer and Shaver. So, we thought let’s create an event to celebrate this launch and give our Wholesale customers and local Barbers the opportunity to touch and feel the products whilst having our Gamma+ Education team use them to create some of today’s latest haircuts.

In your opinion, what sets Gamma+ apart from other brands in the haircare industry?

It was 3 years ago that Gamma+ Italy decided to take on the Barbering Sector which has proved to be a very good move. With a history in Dryers and Straighteners, Barbering was going to be challenge. Except for one thing, there was a definite need for an innovative brand in the Barbering Sector.

Over the past 3 years we have been able to establish Gamma+ as one of the premium Barbering offers in the market, through Innovation and newness, Barbers and Hairdressers alike have supported the brand. With our current distribution and the growth of Gamma+ , has come more opportunity to grow our range of products across the needs of the Professional Sector, now providing, 2 full ranges of Colour, Italian Bleach, Foil, Brushes & Salon Furniture.

Looking ahead, what are your long-term goals or aspirations for Inspire Brands, especially in terms of expanding your global footprint and impacting the industry?

Honestly, I don’t often think about the long term. Now, in my 50’s you would think I would. I love what I do and have some great business partners that share the same philosophy with a supportive team, wife and family. So business is not hard, it’s about enjoying what we do and working with people who we can not only trade with but also share a friendship with.

Our approach is to maximise our full potential hopefully without too much stress. What I can say is that without Risk there is no Reward, so whilst we are taking on India with Gamma+ we will also continue to look at expansion plans into other global markets, as we have done with some of our other brands already, Bio Magic into the Philippines and Hemp Worx into Thailand. Within Australia and New Zealand, we will continue to bring the latest in global trends to the market, work with our customer base to listen to their needs and continue to have FUN while we do it.

www.inspirebrands.com.au