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The quick beauty fix

Three South Florida women hope their 10 Minute Manicure stores become the 'Starbucks' of nail salons

BY NIALA BOODHOO
nboodhoo@MiamiHerald.com

To many professionals, a well-manicured hand is as essential as a BlackBerry. Three South Florida businesswomen are hoping to capitalize on that trend with a new chain of fast but upscale manicure and pedicure salons.

The three friends hatched their business idea over a vacation seven years ago, realizing they were their own key customers. Plans were waylaid in part by the difficulty of finding financing for a retail company following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, but that has since been secured.
The result: The company's first downtown location of the 10 Minute Manicure salon opened two weeks ago across from the Wachovia building in Miami. Another location has been operating at the Cincinnati airport since January.

All stores offer the same services: A 10-minute manicure costs $15, a 15-minute express pedicure costs $20. Traditional services are also available for more money. All the work is done with specially created polishes (that lack the typical nail polish salon smell) and using sterilized equipment that is opened from a package right in front of customers, just like at a dental office.

COSMETICS LINE
The stores also sell a Danish line of cosmetics, GOSH, as well as the store's own nail polish and manicure/pedicure tools.

The three owners want to take a two-pronged approach by opening locations at airports and downtown urban centers.

''Our niche is the person who's willing to pay for the experience and the lifestyle choice,'' said CEO Lorraine O'Neil, who is also a product liability lawyer. ``I think any professional is looking for that type of experience, whether they're in an airport or here in downtown Miami.''

In some ways, the trio used the video rental industry as a model. Added co-founder Karen Janson: ``We wanted passengers and customers to come in and know exactly what you're going to expect.''

The women say their goal isn't to replace a traditional manicure done in a salon -- it's just designed as a stop gap when quick work is needed.

Consumer research shows that the concept certainly targets a key customer: 40 percent more women have manicures today than they did 10 years ago, said America's Research Group Chairman Britt Beemer. ''It's got some real potential,'' he said.

AIRPORTS A KEY MARKET
And targeting busy professionals at airports is also a good market, other analysts say.
One criterion for being a shopper's favorite location is the concept of getting everything done under one roof, said analyst Candace Corlett. People certainly have a lot of time once inside the airport terminal, and with the increasing number of female road warriors, it makes perfect sense, she said.

''The airport can deliver a lot more than mediocre food,'' said Corlett, with WSL Strategic Retail in New York, who added she was herself ''delighted'' with the idea. ``It's a very good use of time rather than drinking coffee and [eating] a Cinnabon.''

At the Cincinnati airport, the store takes up just about 150 square feet of space with three chairs and a small area to sell retail products.

''It's an airport's dream to turn a small space into revenue, and that's what 10 Minute Manicure has done,'' said the airport's Retail Manager David Kellerman, who added he has been ''flooded'' with calls from other airports that can't believe how successful the operations are.

Chief Operating Officer Vivian Jimenez and her partners say they have been surprised at how many male customers they are seeing at the Cincinnati airport location. Locations at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and Ronald Reagan National Airport in the Washington D.C. area are set to open soon. Jimenez said the group has also closed on about a dozen other locations and is negotiating on another 20.

100 LOCATIONS

The goal is to have at least 100 locations in the United States and Canada by the end of next year, she said.

''It was important for us to open in our hometown. Our first location was in Cincinnati, but we really wanted to launch our business concept in our backyard, in our downtown,'' Jimenez said.
The financial backing for the venture comes from Canadian real estate developer Triple Five, which has investments in the Mall of the Americas and the West Edmonton Mall, where another 10 Minute Manicure will soon open.

But Corlett, the retail analyst who was delighted with the airport concept, thinks the competitive edge is lost in a downtown urban center like Miami, where nail salons are plentiful.
''You can go into any salon on the street and do a polish change very quickly,'' she said.

posted by Cheryl Levesque @ 1:00 PM