Australian Capital Territory Franchise Owners have taken out the top gong at last night’s Just Cuts Franchise Awards held during the company’s Annual International Conference in Phuket, Thailand. Sonia and Robert Holgate took out the award for Franchisee of the Year. Sonia and Robert are the proud Owners of three Just Cuts salons; one in Tuggeranong, one in Canberra Centre and one in Gungahlin, all located in the Australian Capital Territory.
Sonia and Robert were awarded for their outstanding operational performance, successful local area marketing initiatives, team training excellence and their ongoing commitment to the Just Cuts brand and franchise system. Sonia started with Just Cuts as a Stylist just over 20 years ago when the Woden, ACT salon first opened. In 2004, Robert and Sonia became Just Cuts Franchise Owners when they purchased Tuggeranong, ACT and Queanbeyan, NSW (they have since successfully sold Queanbeyan, NSW). 18 months later they opened Gungahlin (a greenfields site) and in 2012 they opened Canberra Centre which services a more corporate clientele.
Each of the Holgate’s salons are set up on the new Just Cuts exclusive cloud-based point of sale and marketing system, have yielded fantastic financial results and are often amongst the top 10 retailing salons across the entire Just Cuts network of 200 salons in Australia and New Zealand.
Sonia and Robert took out the top spot ahead of over 100 other Just Cuts franchisees.
“Sonia and Robert have consistently been standout amongst our network of Owners over the past 10 years. Their commitment to and passion for the Just Cuts way of being is contagious and they really are an embodiment of everything we stand for – quality, excellence and positivity. Sonia and Robert never miss an owners meeting or conference and are always looking for new ideas on how to grow their business. They are collaborative and are happy to work with new and existing owners to reach outstanding outcomes as a community.”, says Denis McFadden, CEO and founder of Just Cuts.
Sonia and Robert absolutely love working as both leaders and team members in a franchise community. “We are both very people oriented and have a lot to give to all our team members. Working as a team is paramount to our salons and we are very enthusiastic as well as energetically proactive within the hairdressing industry. Communication, training and customer service are crucial to our businesses as this complements the highly skilled stylists within the salons. We believe that our team members need to be led and it is up to us to be role models.” Sonia said.
Robert continued “We also have a health and wellbeing program as part of our employment. Team members are given opportunities for further training (internally and externally) as well as personal development. Owning our own business has provided us greater flexibility in life, it has rewarded us with experiences of learning, making new friends and has made our family enjoy what is of true value in life and that is relationships and the power of association. Our three children have all worked in the business and have learnt the value of working smarter.”