TIGI Becomes Latest Casualty on Global Assault
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010
Loading ...It started with a Stick and ended with a Stick.
On June 24 at 11AM, Vince Davis, Senior VP TIGI and our area manager, Tom Buffano, came into my office and after less than 30 seconds of idle conversation, handed me a letter of termination.
Effective date was July 1. We took the brand from $200,000 in sales to over $6 Million in sales. We had the largest TIGI Art Team. We were distributor of the year for education.
First they took our chain business away. Then they opened BSG’s stores in Michigan.
And now this. TIGI is going direct. They can do it better than us and after 12 years, we are yesterday’s news. No compensation, and not even a thank you. It’s the global way.
Ten minutes after the meeting started, it was over. We did manage to get a store contract much like we did when L’Oreal said good-bye to us.
Am I bitter? Not at all. I have come to understand the global assault on our once proud entrepreneurially-driven industry and that we are just a by-product of it. The bigger guns always win. Global is about numbers, not people and sorry to say, I’m not global.
Salons know we have fought TIGI every step of the way in regards to diversion, discounting, ULTA and so forth. Many stayed with TIGI because of us. I feel for them, the Art Team and those that drank the TIGI Kool-Aid.
They too have to make a decision how to move their business forward. And it sucks because they don’t know what’s next. They don’t know if there is any loyalty left. Who can blame them?
Here is what I do know. We are a privately-held company focused on the business of people who work for us and with us. We will never be a BSG or Beauty Alliance with 10-20 “big” brands. We are now a “boutique” distributor of hair care products and proud of it. This was destiny. For the Mascolo Brothers, they took a Stick and evolved into a company that sold for more than $400 Million to Unilever.
And for us, it ends with a Stick and it hurts. That’s OK. While we may not have the bigger guns, we have something more valuable and it’s something money can’t buy.
Happy Tuesday!
