Marc was 26 when he opened his first Supercuts in Los Angeles and was one of the original SFA Board Members. Marc and his wife Kathleen met in 1985 while she worked for the advertising agency representing Supercuts. Marc now owns all or part of 32 stores in Greater Los Angeles.
Here is his story…
I came to Supercuts from a real estate investment business. I was 26 years old back in 1981 when I opened my first store in Los Angeles with partner Paul Silver. I currently own all or part of 32 stores, and am fortunate to have Joey and Cheryl Robinson operating them. At present, I am only allowed to sweep hair in the stores, or fix a window shade. From time to time, I am given marketing or other assignments.
With initial success in a handful of Los Angeles stores, I expanded to Texas, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and some far flung southern California locations. Ten years ago, I swapped/sold all stores outside California, so now I participate only in California locations in the greater LA area.
I was one of the original members of the SFA and have been active ever since. I served on the first Board of Directors for the SFA, and was also its President for two years when Supercuts Inc was headquartered in San Francisco and Dave Lipson ran the company. One of my contributions was developing the ZBBS in 1991 with help from Alan Kushnir and Paul Silver. I also served on the Board of Directors for Supercuts Inc for one year (while sporting an impressive ponytail).
In the late 1980’s the SFA sued the Supercuts parent company (Frank and Geoffrey) for violations of the franchise agreement. In the counter suit, I was one of three individually named defendants in which they asked for damages from me in the multi millions of dollars. The suit was settled, the parent company was sold, and as a result we have the Working Together Document today that protects us as franchisees. I hold being a named defendant as a badge of honor to this day (albeit a scary one).
My biggest hope and desire for Supercuts is that we embrace Quality control and technology in a stronger and more impactful way. The strength of our system is not how many doors we have open but how good the product is we deliver. Our systems need to be strengthened to insure that customers leave satisfied whether at my store or yours. We also need to embrace technology in ways that we have not yet. This includes apps, in-store displays and record keeping. There is much for us to do to be a leader in both these areas.
I met my wife, Kathleen, when she worked for the Supercuts ad agency at the time (1985), Foote Cone & Belding. Our first meeting was on the beach in Kauai, where she had agreed to teach a yoga class to some franchisees just after sunrise. Board meetings in SF gave me an opportunity to see her more frequently, and love bloomed. Kathleen and I currently live in Pacific Palisades, CA and have one daughter, Jenna, who is in the middle of college applications (yikes). Jenna attended SFA conventions for years through elementary school. She has only ever had her hair cut (and now colored) at SuperCuts. Her first job was as a receptionist in one of my stores. Our family has a mutt named Smudge.
My current hobby is family genealogy. I have nearly 12,500 on his tree and was able to trace Kathleen’s roots back to Braveheart (Robert the Brus).