Good Hair Day facts for kids
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| Privately held | |
| Industry | Hair styling |
| Founded | January 2001 |
| Founder | Martin Penny, Gary Douglas and Robert Powls |
| Headquarters | Wellington Place, Leeds, United Kingdom |
| Revenue |  £50,360,000 (2006) |
| £9,600,000 (2006) |
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| Parent | Wella |
Good Hair Day, often called ghd, is a company from Leeds, United Kingdom. They make popular products for hair styling. ghd is well-known for its hair straightening irons. You can find their products in over 50,000 hair salons worldwide. ghd was also the first company that makes hair tools to sponsor the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.
Contents
The Story of ghd
How ghd Started
Martin Penny, Gary Douglas, Susan Powls, and Robert Powls started ghd in January 2001. They worked together to buy the rights to a special hair straightening iron. This iron was invented by someone in South Korea. The ghd brand grew popular mostly by people telling their friends about it. This is called "word of mouth" growth.
Two years later, ghd started its first advertising campaign. By then, hair salons had bought £12 million worth of ghd products. This was much more than the company expected to sell.
Growing Around the World
In May 2004, ghd began selling its products in North America. This helped the company make £37 million in sales that year across the world. In July 2006, a company called Lloyds Development Capital bought The Jemella Group. This group owned the ghd brand. They paid £55 million for it.
Eleven months later, ghd was sold again to Montagu Private Equity for £160 million. Then, in February 2013, a British company called Lion Capital bought ghd for about £300 million.
By March 2013, ghd's total sales were over £150 million. This was more than double their sales from 2007. They sold over two million styling irons in 50,000 salons worldwide. In 2016, a company called Coty bought ghd. They paid about £420 million to Lion Capital. This sale was finished on November 21, 2016.
Changes in Ownership
On December 1, 2020, Coty sold a large part of its ownership in several brands, including ghd. They sold this part to a company called KKR for $2.5 billion. Coty still kept 40% of the company that owned ghd and other brands.
Later, on October 1, 2021, Coty announced another sale. They sold about 9% more of their shares to KKR for $426.5 million. This deal meant Coty's share in ghd and the other brands went down to about 30.6%.
On November 8, 2021, Coty agreed to sell about 4.7% more of its ownership in ghd to KKR. This deal further reduced Coty's total share in ghd to about 25.9%. KKR still has a small ownership in Coty itself.
ghd's Cool Products
ghd has launched many different hair styling tools over the years:
- In 2011, ghd released the V Gold Series Styler.
- In 2012, ghd launched the Air Professional Hairdryer.
- In March 2013, ghd introduced the "Eclipse" hair straightener. This tool uses a steady temperature. This helps style hair faster, especially thick hair that used to need many passes.
- In 2014, ghd launched the Aura Hairdryer. They also released ghd Curve, which is a range of tools for curling hair.
- In 2015, ghd launched the Platinum Styler.
- In 2018, the GHD platinum Plus styler was released.
Advertising and Sponsorships
ghd uses different ways to advertise its products and partner with others.
- ghd started its first advertising campaign in August 2003. They sponsored a British reality television show called The Salon.
- In November 2009, ghd ran popular ads called 'Twisted Fairytales'. These ads showed characters like Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, and Cinderella.
- In October 2011, ghd launched the "Scarlet Collection". The singer Katy Perry was the face of this campaign. The famous photographer David LaChapelle took the pictures for the ads.
- ghd has also worked with Victoria's Secret for many years. They sponsor the annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. ghd is the first hair tool company ever to sponsor this fashion show.
Celebrity Endorsements
Many famous people have supported the ghd brand. For example, the singer Katy Perry became the official face of ghd in December 2011. This means she helped promote the brand.
Giving Back: ghd's Charity Work
Since 2004, ghd has raised about £2.5 million for the Breakthrough Breast Cancer charity. Every year, the company makes a special pink hair iron. For each one sold, £10 is given to support the charity. In January 2010, ghd also partnered with a charity called "Mom It Forward." They worked with SafeHouse Denver, a shelter for victims of domestic violence and their children. This event took place at a store called Sephora.
