Just over two years ago, Richard Arnold launched his idea for a men’s grooming salon.
Today, Menicure Grooming is poised to grow by another three locations in the near future in Toronto.
“We do manicures and pedicures for men and laser and waxing hair removal and in addition we do facials,” said Arnold, the President and Owner.
“Now, we say it’s for men but we don’t care who walks in the door to be honest. It’s more of the design in the facility and it’s more geared I would say towards men as when you compare a barber shop to a hair salon.
“It’s catered more towards men. There’s comfy club chairs that you sit in to get a manicure or a pedicure. There’s TVs that drop down right in front of you. There’s directional audio. If you’re getting hair removal, there’s TVs in the ceiling. There’s good music playing. It’s manly but it’s not your basement. It’s bright. It’s very clean.”
The first location opened at Queen Street West. Two more will be opening at Yonge/Davisville and Yonge/Lawrence. And Arnold is currently working on securing a fourth location.
“The two new locations are quite different. There’s one that’s a little bit smaller than our existing location and then there’s one that’s huge. We’re actually going to call it Menicure Plus because it will have some other services in it than what is currently being offered by Menicure.
“Primarily we’re going to be offering barbering as well. We’re going to bring in a third party to handle that aspect of the business. It’s not the business we’re in. But it will be contained within the building. It’s also going to have a pretty decent fitness facility in there . . . It’s really going to be an advanced wellness building.”
The enhanced Menicure location will be going into the former space occupied by Burger Cellar at Yonge/Lawrence.
The next one at Yonge/Davisville should be open by the end of September while the larger one will likely open at the beginning of 2024.
“We’re looking for a location in The Path which is an area that’s below the Financial District in Toronto. We’re not quite there yet on the location but it looks promising,” said Arnold.
When asked how many locations the brand can eventually grow to, he said: “Well really our feeling is that you could probably have one in pretty well every neighbourhood in the GTA and then expand beyond that. It’s like your local barbershop. They’re all over and we feel that we could be in the same position as that.”
One of the unique features of the brand is that it’s fully licensed. The brand also sells products in-store.
“Most men that I know are doing this type of grooming to some extent – either by themselves or with their spouse or men are going into these other salons with their female spouse. A lot of men are doing these services. Maybe they don’t talk about it quite so much,” said Arnold. “But a lot of men are doing these services.
“I was one of them. I would go to a local nail salon and really felt like a third party in these salons. They’re not designed as much for men. That’s really the way this started. We have a business partner, he’s in the same situation. He would go and get his nails done as well and hair removal and things like that. And again the feeling was where we were going they weren’t necessarily designed with us men in mind as much as women. They’re definitely more geared towards women and rightly so probably because that’s where the market was.
“Our feeling is that the market is changing. As a matter of fact, if you look at the cosmetic industry, men’s cosmetics is the fastest growing part of the business and we feel the same way in the aesthetic part of the business. That’s really how it started. We just wanted to build a place that was a little more oriented towards a men’s type environment.”
As the company says on its website: “When you look good, you feel even better.”
