Cut That Out! Hair Cuttery Accusing Competitor of Nabbing Star Employees

PHOTO: Dennis Ratner, co-founder of Hair Cuttery; photo courtesy of company

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In a lawsuit filed Monday in the Circuit Court for Fairfax County, Vienna-based Hair Cuttery and its parent company Ratner are accusing Regis Corporation (“Regis”) and a former Ratner employee, Bobby Brown, of unethically raiding high-level Ratner employees in an attempt to steal Ratner’s trade secrets, mimic its family-based culture, and according to Ratner “save Regis from stock values that have been in a steep decline for years,” a news release from Hair Cuttery says.

Hair Cuttery points out in its news release that it is “one of the oldest family-owned retail businesses in the Washington, D.C. area.” Hair Cuttery began with a single beauty salon opened by Dennis Ratner and his then-wife Ann, in West Springfield in Fairfax County in 1974.

“Regis has embarked on a desperate campaign to raid key Hair Cuttery personnel that we have built and created over decades,” said Hair Cuttery co-founder and CEO Dennis Ratner. “Just because Regis is a huge publicly traded corporation dominated by hedge funds, doesn’t mean it can raid a family business that prides itself first and foremost on its culture and employees – not its stock price.”

Patch reached out to Regis Corporation for comment and will update this story if and when a comment is received.

“We believe they have our entire playbook,” Ratner told The Washington Post. Ratner is seeking $5 million in damages, a court order to stop Regis from hiring more Hair Cuttery employees and enforcement of a noncompete agreement that would prevent Ratner’s former star employee, Bobby Brown, an 11-year-veteran of Hair Cuttery, from continuing to work for Regis following his departure in August, the Post reported.

Regis is a publicly traded company with 9,556 locations, both company-owned and franchised. Its brands include SmartStyle, Supercuts, MasterCuts, Regis Salons, Cost Cutters, Sassoon Salon and Jean Louis David.

Susan Gustafson, president of Ratner Companies, described the core allegations in the case filed against Regis:

“Instead of competing on the same playing field, they are raiding and stealing from our family of employees through questionable promises and tactics, and attacking a well-established local company,” Gustafson said. She continued, stating: “Hair Cuttery focuses on personal relationships with our employees and our customers, and operates each salon like a family business. We will take any measure necessary to protect those relationships.”

Since 1974, Ratner has grown to own and operate nearly 1,000 salons in 16 states, with locations in the East Coast, the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic region. The Ratners, both of whom are licensed hair stylists themselves, have never accepted outside funding, and they do not permit independent franchisee owners to run their salons. Instead they grew their business the old fashioned way – one salon at a time, they said.

Ratner stated: “We are a family business and we will fight for our employees and for our company.” He added, “By filing this suit we are taking appropriate measures to protect the relationships and family values we have always respected here at Hair Cuttery.”

Hair Cuttery’s suit is primarily based on Regis’s campaign to target and convince key Ratner managers, such as Bobby Brown named in the suit, in Ratner’s most lucrative markets to quit their jobs and work for Regis while making use of confidential information obtained during their employment by Ratner. Regis has disregarded restrictive contracts in place forbidding them from working for a competitor such as Regis.

In addition to his flagship Hair Cuttery, which has more than $400 million in annual revenue, the Ratners own the upscale Salon Cielo and Spa, and the midrange Bubbles Salons, according to The Washington Post. The company also owns the Cibu hair-products line.

This is in reference to case number 2015-13150, Ratner Companies, L.C. v. Bobby Brown and Regis Corporation, which was filed Monday in the Circuit Court for Fairfax County.