Hairdresser still close to his roots despite planning 50th outlet

Andrew Phouli is the chairman of Rush hair and beauty, a company he founded with business partner Stelios Andrew in 1995.

Despite opening flagship salons in Baker Street and Moorgate Rush has stayed close to its roots by maintaining a strong presence in Croydon, where it boast three salons in the town centre alone.

Mr Phouli sees the opening of the 50th Rush premises as a landmark achievement.

He said: “We’ve gone from strength to strength.

“We made a big push in 2009, opening 16 salons in just one year. It was a very exciting time.”

Mr Phouli paid tribute to the firm’s loyal clients for helping it not only defy the economic downturn, but record impressive growth when other companies were struggling to survive.

He said: “People will always want to look good, they want the right advice for their hair.

“With such economic doom and gloom people want to take care of themselves and cheer themselves up.”

“Success is ultimately down to our clients – they are the most important people in our business, we’re there to treat the client.

“We have roughly 1,000 regular customers. It’s absolutely about loyalty.”

According to Mr Phouli, clients like the element of luxury and his regulars value being looked after and receiving a quality consultation.

He said: “Bad weather also means that people want cheering up, and rightly so.”

The firm was called upon to style catwalk models for London Fashion Week this Spring, and the company was also awarded the British Hairdressing Awards Colourist of the Year 2009/10.

Of these achievements Mr Phouli said: “We pride ourselves on education.

“We have two academies dedicated to training our stylists, and run training sessions every 3 months.”

One of these, the Advanced Acamedy in North End, has been home to the company’s award winning artistic team since 2008, and is where the firm trains all of its stylists, receptionists and assistants.

More details about the company are available at rush.co.uk