How HairCo tamed its tangled business operations with Cin7

The Alessi brothers embraced the growth of their parent’s hair products and tools store, transforming HairCo into one of Australia’s leading salon supply importers and distributors with end-to-end inventory efficiency.

In 2005, Tony and Connie Alessi opened a small hair products and tools store to support their three growing boys. What was originally started as a way to keep food on the table has grown into one of Australia’s leading importers and distributors of beauty and barbershop products.

Now run primarily by the Alessi sons, HairCo has expanded its reach to consumers, trade professionals, wholesalers, and salons through two brick-and-mortar stores and a thriving e-commerce website.

Makeover Montage

By 2021, HairCo was suffering from a bad case of business bedhead. General Manager Dion Alessi recognized the need for a business transformation. Managing two brick-and-mortar stores, e-commerce, and hundreds of SKUs meant things were getting a little knotty. HairCo needed an inventory solution that could accurately track items throughout their supply chain and resolve operational inefficiencies.

“Before Cin7, our inventory was never really accurate.”

Cin7 was recommended to Dion by a fellow industry professional. It was like finding the perfect multi-purpose styling tool – versatile, efficient, and exactly what HairCo needed. Dion was impressed by Cin7’s comprehensive features and inventory visibility across their warehouses and stores. “Cin7’s all-around inventory was the key for us,” he says.

Implementing Cin7 brought immediate relief to longstanding pain points. He recalls, “My dad’s number one gripe in business was stock take. It was hard to do, painful, and clunky.” By switching to a rolling stock take, now possible with Cin7’s software, Dion saved up to 16 hours of counting time and provided accurate inventory levels without disrupting operations.

Forecasting, once a time-consuming Excel-based task, became effortless with Cin7’s ForesightAI.

“I was pulling my hair out before. With Cin7 ForesightAI, the forecasts are all there with a couple of clicks of a button.”

ForesightAI became HairCo’s right hand man, predicting inventory needs three to six months in advance. It accounted for lead times, minimum order quantities, and past sales data. The results were nothing short of miraculous: “It changed my life.” In just three months of following ForesightAI’s recommendations, HairCo saw a 10% increase in sales. Talk about a transformation!

Trimming the Excess, Boosting the Volume

Cin7’s impact wasn’t confined to demand forecasting:

1. Reordering became a breeze: “With Cin7, I can spit out an order in ten minutes. It saved me upwards of an hour and a half on some orders.”
2. Receiving orders was silk smooth: “We saved up to 50% of the time we used to spend receiving goods.”
3. Picking and packing errors were trimmed, dropping from 3% to 0.5%.

For Dion and HairCo, adopting Cin7 was like giving the business a complete makeover. The streamlined end-to-end process and newfound efficiency have set them up for further growth.

“Looking back, I would have done this ten years ago. The accuracy in the numbers and the time saved with Cin7 is huge.”

From tangled beginnings to a polished finish, HairCo’s journey with Cin7 shows how the right business tools can transform a growing company. The brand is currently expanding to New Zealand, where they’ll use Cin7 to set up the warehouse and distribution channels. HairCo is a perfect example that with proper care and the right tools, any business can thrive.