Singapore Volume 9

4 8 | S U P E R B R A N D S V O L U M E I X MARKET For the Jean Yip Group, beauty means business. Singapore’s leading — and largest — beauty lifestyle chain takes care of customers from head to toe by offering quality solutions that include hairdressing; hair and scalp care; skin care; slimming and body care; spa and wellness; nail care, as well as in-house solution-based personal care products. Its service range naturally attracts females aged 21 and above, but it also enjoys a strong secondary market among males for its hairdressing, and hair and scalp care brands. The company has nine brands under its umbrella: Jean Yip Hairdressing, Jean Yip Beauty & Slimming, Jean Yip Hub, Jean Yip Academy – The School of Hair & Beauty, Oriental Hair Solutions, Jean Yip Loft, Superwhite Skin Lab, 6 Elements Hair Spa and the brand new Cheryl W Wellness & Weight Management. ACHIEVEMENTS The Jean Yip Group has earned Superbrands Status in 2002, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2016 as “Singapore’s Most Favourite Salon”. A local brand for more than 30 years, it was also celebrated as recipient of the Singapore Prestige Brand Award — Heritage Brand, in 2012. That same year, it received the Reader’s Digest Most Trusted Brands award. The company achieved Platinum status in the 2009 Reader’s Digest Trusted Brand Awards for the Beauty Centre category; it was the only beauty lifestyle services provider to be selected. In 2010, consumers reaffirmed this status when Jean Yip Group won the Reader’s Digest Trusted Brands (Gold) award. More recently, Jean Yip Beauty achieved the Influential Brand Award for 2016. Signature treatments from Jean Yip Group have also won numerous awards by magazines such as Her World Spa Awards and the Singapore Women’s Weekly Spa Awards amongst others. Company founder, Jean Yip, was personally nominated for the 1999 ASME-HP Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award. Mervin Wee was awarded Personality of the Year 2002, as well as Order de la Chevalerie (Order of Knight) Intercoiffure 2003 from ICD Intercoiffure Mondial in Paris. The Jean Yip Academy is an Approved Training Provider for National Institute of Technical Education Certificate (NITEC) courses, as well as a Certified On-the-Job Training Centre for hairdressing, and spa and aesthetic therapy apprenticeships. HISTORY At age 16, Jean Yip had her sights set on a hairdressing career. Despite her father’s objection, she enrolled secretly in a local school that offered an American hairdressing programme. When her father eventually found out, he advised her to “learn from the best”. This led her to London’s prestigious Allan International to pursue her dream. After graduation, she continued to hone her professional skills in London, for a year, at various leading hair salons. Once back home, she helped with the family business and then at the age of 23, established her first hair salon at Katong Plaza in 1982. Mr. Mervin Wee, who would become her husband, joined the salon in 1984. In 1990, Jean’s younger siblings, Dawn and Oliver, joined the flourishing business, and that same year, Jean Yip Salon Pte Ltd was incorporated. Jean and Mervin still handle hairdressing aspects of the business, while Dawn runs the beauty and slimming brands, as well as the group’s overall marketing and business operations. Oliver oversees research and product development, on top of developing new businesses. The company ventured abroad in 1995 with its first Malaysian outlet in Johor. Today, Jean Yip Group owns more than 70 branches in Singapore and Malaysia, with over 800 employees. The company has anchored itself successfully as Singapore’s leading beauty lifestyle provider with its own training school and personal care products. PRODUCT Jean Yip Group specialises in providing total beauty lifestyle solutions. Each of its nine brands offer different solutions for specialised care. The mainstay, and Singapore’s leading hair salon, Jean Yip Hairdressing, has a robust team