How the Rising Energy Prices are Affecting the Beauty Industry

As businesses across the world are affected by rising energy costs, The British Association of Beauty Therapy & Cosmetology (BABTAC, British Beauty Council (BBCo), Federation of Holistic Therapists (FHT), Hair & Barber Council, National Hair & Beauty Federation (NHBF), Sunbed Association and UK Spa Association have all been responding to concerns by worried salon owners around rising energy bills and the already tenuous positions their businesses are in after two years of lockdowns and operational restrictions affecting income.

These leading organisations within personal care (hair, beauty and barbering) have come together ahead of this week’s Spring Statement to call for an energy bill rebate, similar to that offered to domestic properties in February, to be made available to commercial properties. This is amid fears from the sector ahead of this week’s Spring Statement that rising energy costs could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back of the sector’s pandemic recovery.

A survey of 1,774 beauty businesses across the UK has found that 94% have said that utility bills have increased compared to this time last year, with a third (32%) stating energy bills are their largest overhead and a further 50% stating it is their second greatest overhead – this is a real concern for businesses struggling to rebuild their businesses post pandemic. 

An unfortunate 44% of businesses within personal care reported bill rises of 0-50%, 41% said they had risen by 51-100% and 10% had risen by a staggering 101-200% and while 57% have attempted to switch energy suppliers, many energy suppliers are not currently accepting new clients. For others, an alternate energy supplier has not been able to offer a more competitive price. Likewise, 70% of beauty businesses have been unable to renegotiate their current contract with their existing energy supplier.

82% of beauty businesses have taken other steps to reduce their energy costs – including turning down heating, turning off lights more frequently and turning off sockets at the end of each day. Unfortunately, some businesses also report closing the salon for a day a week to save costs. As a result, salons are also reducing other business costs to be able to afford increasing utility bills.

This is an even greater issue considering there is set to be another large increase in April where standard variable tariffs while be increasing by as much as 50%.

Lesley Blair, CEO of BABTAC commented “When salons have worked so hard to survive and are now beginning to rebuild it really does feel like one thing after another. We’ve been highlighting growing concerns around post COVID recovery as utility costs continue to spiral for some time and were keen to feedback to Government on the impact this is having on the personal care sector.”