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When AG Hair moved into its new, 70,000-sq.-foot, state-of-the-art producing facility in Coquitlam, B.C., two several years ago, it was portion of a system to supercharge enlargement of its hair care solution line to salons in worldwide marketplaces. Europe was next on its checklist. Then COVID-19 hit.
Not only was the European enlargement place on hold, but salons in key markets throughout Canada and the United States were being briefly shut. Pretty couple were getting hair solutions, so producing was halted in mid-March, leaving most of the company’s 82 staff members out of function.
AG Hair could have waited out the pandemic but in its place made the decision to lean into its entrepreneurial lifestyle and make a sharp pivot. It commenced providing hand-sanitizing goods for front-line overall health-care personnel, addressing a international lack.
“We realized there was this huge need for wellness-care pros, and we required to make a distinction and be in a position to offer them with the goods they wanted,” states AG Hair CEO Graham Fraser.
AG Hair obtained Canadian and U.S. approvals a week immediately after implementing for the licences desired to make sanitizer, and made samples to exhibit regional authorities in just 48 several hours.
AG Hair’s Coquitlam facility has pivoted to building hand sanitizer (Photograph by Alana Paterson)
“That speedy reaction time, and the reality that we experienced gone as a result of all of the Well being Canada regulatory hurdles, showed [the local health authorities] that we were a lover they could trust and a person they could look to, to deliver the items they essential,” Fraser suggests.
Inside of a thirty day period, the business begun pumping out the products and solutions, initially for the well being-care field, then for customers on its personal web site and on Amazon. About 10 per cent of AG Hair’s hand-sanitizer output also went to persons in want, as determined by businesses these kinds of as United Way.
Parallel 49 Brewing Corporation is also working with AG Hair’s Coquitlam producing facility to create its individual mix of liquid hand sanitizer for front-line well being and unexpected emergency employees, in partnership with the B.C. authorities.
Fraser credits his team for its vitality and creativity in making the hand-sanitizer manufacturing materialize, and serving to place AG Hair employees again to perform.
“We realized we had an chance . . . and then it became this incredible, virtually war-room mentality and collaboration with our owners, our executive staff and our people to say, ‘How are we going to get by way of this?’ ” Fraser recollects. “I assume our accomplishment speaks to the style of men and women we have and the entrepreneurial spirit of pursuing each individual avenue we have, comprehending how we can develop the items and making it happen.”
AG Hair’s determination to investing in long run progress is a big aspect of what tends to make it a Very best Managed business, claims Nicole Coleman, a partner at Deloitte and co-guide of its Greatest Managed Software in B.C.
“Capability and innovation occur by pretty strongly with this business,” claims Coleman, who is also AG Hair’s coach at Deloitte. “I don’t imagine they would be ready to pivot as quickly if they weren’t so strategic and had the inside abilities to do it.”
The manufacturing facility was a large expense, but one Coleman says has previously paid out dividends.
“They were being looking forward with a strategic program in thoughts about future advancement and how they could grow, fairly than just focusing on the working day to working day,” she says. “Best Managed organizations are generally pushing the envelope and are conscious about organizing for the foreseeable future.”
AG Hair was established in Vancouver in 1989 by hairstylist John Davis and graphic artist Lotte Davis. The spouse-and-wife team began bottling hair solutions in their basement and offering them immediate to salons from the again of a station wagon.
The company inevitably moved its manufacturing off-web site, to a third party. A single day, John went to observe the operations and was stunned to see salt becoming poured into the mixture. While he was instructed salt is typically utilized as a thickener, he did not like the opportunity facet consequences of dry hair and skin.
It was at that instant John resolved the firm would oversee its possess producing. “Through that practical experience, John also turned an pro in products improvement,” suggests Fraser, who came to the enterprise in 2000 as director of sales.
Following acquiring worked for a lot more than two many years at PepsiCo and Kraft Meals, Fraser was keen to work at a smaller sized, more agile firm where by he felt he could assist make a variance.
“It was perfect due to the fact I obtained to provide a lot of structure and approach that I discovered in those companies, but I also realized an awful large amount about being an entrepreneur from John and Lotte: that sense of urgency, the decision-building method, the have to have to get items finished and drive factors ahead and go after alternatives,” he suggests.
Fraser has helped drive AG Hair’s expansion into the U.S. and internationally, such as Australia, Taiwan, and Central and South The usa. A part of its sales go to One particular Lady Can, a charity launched by Lotte that provides education, education and mentoring for girls in sub-Saharan Africa.
Fraser also oversees the progress of new, trending products, together with a new deep-conditioning hair mask manufactured with 98 for every cent plant-based and organic substances. Hand-sanitizing spray and gel will be the latest addition to the company’s product or service lineup.
“We really don’t see the demand from customers [for hand-sanitizing products] heading absent,” he claims. “As the isolation procedures start off to get lifted, folks are going to need to have forms of protection and protocols as they get again into typical lifestyle and work. We see there’s going to be a will need for these forms of goods extended-expression.”
This report appears in print in the June 2020 issue of Maclean’s journal with the headline, “Working out the kinks.” Subscribe to the month-to-month print journal right here.
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