- Messages
- 44
- Location
- Hungerford
Hello,
My name is Robert Johnston and along with my wife Charlotte own The Gentleman's Shop in Hungerford.
I have been a Barber for over 26 years now and started in an age when it was fashionable to have your haircut in a ladies salon and guys had too much facial hair! I started my first Barber Shop in Hungeford way back in 1988 when I cut hair on my own. The business expanded and we moved to larger premises in 1996 which meant we had space to sell a few shaving products etc in a corner of the Barber's. We were amazed at how popular these items were, so in 1997 Charlotte opened a dedicated shop next door, the first TGS! Many of our earlier customers were visitors from overseas whi wished to purchsae when back in their own country, "did we have a website?". We didn't have a computer let alone one of those...
So in 1999 we bought a computer and the book "Windows 98 for dummies", built a website and stood back, it was like lighting the touchpaper on a firework. Suddenly we could reach out to a worldwide audience and were only limited by the amount of stock we could physically hold. In 2002 we were able to purchase Charnham House, a grade two listed building dating way back to 1520. This meant that the Barber Shop, Retail Shop and Website are all intergrated within the same location and is now the workplace of 6 barbers and two retail executives.
Part of our success is the wave of interest that guys now have in traditional grooming products and generally looking after themselves. A great haircut and a quality shave are essentials not luxuries.
I promise not to use this forum as a shameless plug for my own business, but it is great to share some of the passion I have for my proffession with like minded individuals.
All the best, Robert
My name is Robert Johnston and along with my wife Charlotte own The Gentleman's Shop in Hungerford.
I have been a Barber for over 26 years now and started in an age when it was fashionable to have your haircut in a ladies salon and guys had too much facial hair! I started my first Barber Shop in Hungeford way back in 1988 when I cut hair on my own. The business expanded and we moved to larger premises in 1996 which meant we had space to sell a few shaving products etc in a corner of the Barber's. We were amazed at how popular these items were, so in 1997 Charlotte opened a dedicated shop next door, the first TGS! Many of our earlier customers were visitors from overseas whi wished to purchsae when back in their own country, "did we have a website?". We didn't have a computer let alone one of those...
So in 1999 we bought a computer and the book "Windows 98 for dummies", built a website and stood back, it was like lighting the touchpaper on a firework. Suddenly we could reach out to a worldwide audience and were only limited by the amount of stock we could physically hold. In 2002 we were able to purchase Charnham House, a grade two listed building dating way back to 1520. This meant that the Barber Shop, Retail Shop and Website are all intergrated within the same location and is now the workplace of 6 barbers and two retail executives.
Part of our success is the wave of interest that guys now have in traditional grooming products and generally looking after themselves. A great haircut and a quality shave are essentials not luxuries.
I promise not to use this forum as a shameless plug for my own business, but it is great to share some of the passion I have for my proffession with like minded individuals.
All the best, Robert
