People
DAVID YOON (BEN’S BEAUTY CEO)
BEN’S BEAUTY:
An Upstanding Tradition in Service
CEO of Ben’s Beauty Supply Inc., David Yoon chats with editor Hannah Ku
The History of Ben’s
Founded in Houston, Texas,
in 1989 Ben’s Beauty has
been one of the biggest
names in beauty supply
distribution since it started.
The company pioneered the
concept of a beauty supply
in the Houston area after
setting up its own small franchise of stores to show that
selling everything else along
with the wigs was a stellar
business model. We caught
up with CEO, David Yoon,
to hear all about the amazing
company and what they have
in store for the next year.
no IBC stores. A lot of Koreans were in the fashion
industry or were running wig shops. Wig shops at the
As a distributing company, Ben’s Beauty carries up
time were about 300 to a maximum of 600 sq ft and
to approximately 15,000 types of products and sundry
they just specialized in customizing and then selling
items that are then sold to beauty supply stores. These
wigs at a higher price. We came in and recommended
products are commonly referred to as “Over the Countcarrying beauty supplies, because it
er,” or OTC, items thanks to their
just makes sense for the wig shops
history of being sold in pharmacies.
“The
service
side
is
the
and fashion stores to carry other
Since that pattern has changed, Daitems. We had a lot of resistance
key
fact
in
how
we
mainvid Yoon offered up a new term,
Independent Beauty Channel, or tain our relationship with because they thought the margin
IBC. Yoon explained, “That’s the our customers; again we was too small.” In a conversation
with a store owner when they were
terminology other manufacturing
try
to
work
with
them
and
starting out, 20 years ago, one lady
companies use, and that’s what we
use.” The company caters to this understand and meet told Yoon that she could buy a wig
IBC categoryt, which is made up of their customer’s needs for $20 and sell it for $20. “‘So why
would I want to buy beauty supplies
anywhere from 6,000-8,000 stores,
instead
of
dictating
that
for a dollar and sell them for a dollar
approximately 75% of which are
fifty?’ We had a lot of resistance at
things
have
to
be
done
believed to be owned by Korean
the beginning! We decided the best
Americans.
our way.”
thing to do was to open our own
Ben’s Beauty started in wholesale
stores to show the community that
with a 2,000 sq ft shop that sold both
this
makes
a
perfect
business model. We opened a semi
retail and wholesale products. “At the time there were
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COSMOBIZ SALON APRIL 2016