Stylist is ironing out his problems

Richard Kavanagh has overcome manufacturing snags to relaunch his business making hair-straightening products. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

Entrepreneurial hairdresser Richard Kavanagh thought he was going to lose everything when a Chinese manufacturing problem forced him to recall every single unit in his hair-straightening range.

"I was completely gutted. I was really angry because of the time, money and energy we had invested. I was also really ashamed."

Now Kavanagh is back on the road to success, with more than 100 salons across Australasia stocking his products and interest from the United States and South Africa.

Kavanagh, a former TV presenter for the renovation show The Ultimate Do Up, launched his self-titled hair styling range in 2001 after putting together a 20-minute DVD to help people get the "just walked out of a salon look" for themselves at home.

A US distributor got hold of it and the DVD found its way into the hands of the Shopping Network.

"They said: 'It's fantastic - but where are the products?"' Kavanagh, a hairdresser for more than 15 years, looked around and couldn't find one single brand that produced everything he needed to a high standard. So he set about creating it.

He began making his hair straighteners in China and hit his first snag when the factory began to substitute substandard hand-built components.

He shifted to a new factory and after rigorous testing believed he had ironed out the problems.

Kavanagh grew the business to a range of six hair-styling tools and expanded to Australia.

But in 2006 he struck more problems as complaints began to flood in that the tools were faulty and stopped working after being used three or four times.

A money-back guarantee saw 3000 units returned and Kavanagh became ill under the pressure.

"I thought I was going to lose my house, my livelihood and my reputation." His wife was left coping with the business and was forced to sell it to the company's New Zealand distributors.

But 18 months later Kavanagh is back on his feet and again designing the tools. He says he has learned a lot, particularly about manufacturing in China.

"Doing business with China is very different. You have got to learn to roll with the punches and learn how to spot nuances."

One key difference in China, he says, is the tendency for people to say "yes" when they actually mean "no" or "maybe". "It's about learning to spot the differences."

The other big struggle has been regaining trust from customers.

"There were certainly a number of customers who felt like they couldn't trust the brand because of reliability issues."

But he has a number of buyers and believes that has helped to get the message through that he has now got the manufacturing side sorted out.

Initial targets had been to build the business up to $6 million to $10 million in revenue over two years and he hopes he is now on track for that to happen.

"My hope is that in five to 10 years I can look back and see it as a hiccup."

He already has interest from a buyer in New York who is ready to take a shipment and has had contact from a South African buyer who wants to launch the brand there in August.

So far 100 salons have signed up to sell his hair products in Australasia and around five or six more are signing up every week. At the peak he had 150 salons and was selling 1500 styling tools a month.