Regis Corporation

Regis Corporation is an American operator of hair salons. As of August 2021, it has 5,563 franchised and 276 company-owned salons. Its headquarters are in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The primary trade names Regis salons operates under are SmartStyle, Supercuts, Holiday Hair, Cost Cutters, First Choice Haircutters, Regis Salons, MasterCuts, Pro-Cuts, Famous Hair, and Roosters Men's Grooming Center.

Regis was founded in 1922 by Paul and Florence Kunin as Kunin Beauty Salon. They sold it to their son Myron in 1958, who renamed the company Regis and moved its salons from department stores to shopping malls. In 1982, the company introduced the Pro-Cuts brand, a value-priced salon for men and families. By the mid-1980s, the company had 500 salons in malls across middle America and hit $150 million annual sales in 1987.

Regis became a public company in 1991 and opened its headquarters in Edina, Minnesota in 1992. In December 1993, Regis acquired 88 salons from the Trade Secret Development Corporation for $12.8 million. The deal helped expand the company's business in the sale of hair and beauty supplies.

By 1994, its upscale store chain Regis Hairstyles accounted for 64% of total sales. Mastercuts Family, meanwhile, accounted for 15% aggregate sales. Regis had 286 stores in Britain, Canada, South Africa, and Mexico.

In July 1996, Regis announced its intention to acquire SuperCuts in a stock swap valued at about $150 million. At the time, Regis had 1,950 hair care salons worldwide, while SuperCuts had 1,168 in the United States. This acquisition allowed Regis to expand into strip centers and street locations. SuperCuts UK remained independent until 2000, when the companies officially merged. By 1998, Regis operated 3,555 salons under the names Supercuts, MasterCuts, TradeSecret, and Regis, and topped the billion-dollar mark in revenue.

In 1999, the two largest publicly traded hair-salon companies merged when Regis acquired The Barbers, Hairstyling for Men & Women, Inc. for $58.7 million. Regis gained more than 4,600 salons and combined sales of nearly $1.5 billion. As part of the merger, the company acquired 199 salons operating as Cost Cutters in Wal-Mart stores, making Regis the primary provider of salon services in Wal-Marts. Family Hair Care, City Looks Salons International, and We Care Hair were also acquired.

In 2002, the Regis a Fortune 1000 company. In April, it acquired Jean Louis David, which owned 1,200 locations in France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland, and the US at the time. In July, it acquired 328 BoRics salons to increase its presence in the Chicago, Detroit and Pittsburgh markets. It also acquired 59 salons in Missouri, Kansas, Arizona and North Carolina in October and 25 Vidal Sassoon salons and four Vidal Sassoon beauty academies in December. The company assumed licensing agreements with Procter & Gamble to expand the Vidal Sassoon salon group brand name in North America, Britain and Germany.