New Owner Combines InStyler With Flower And Harry Josh Hair Tools Brands To Create InStyler Brands

After Hoziane acquired it last year, hair tools staple InStyler has been reorganized along with the brands Flower Hair Tools by Drew Barrymore and Harry Josh Pro Tools into a single entity called InStyler Brands.

Dan Fugardi, former partner at brand protection firm VantageBP, founding partner at renewable energy company Mana Pacific and submarines nuclear engineering department head in the United States Navy, joined InStyler with the acquisition to spearhead the reorganization and is now leading InStyler Brands as CEO. His charge is to spread the company’s revenues across its brands, which span mass and prestige hair tools, while driving sales and profits. Fugardi’s mandate is to vet possible acquisitions and licensing deals, too.

“To bring all of the brands under the roof as InStyler Brands, it’s less confusing and also just shows that we are agnostic as to consumers’ finances and geographic territory,” he says. “We’re trying to really bring these capabilities around the world, and you have to have a united front to navigate that. What comes next is adopting more brands to fill the holes that fit with our overall mission.”

Established by InStyler’s founders, Fugardi explains that mission is to deliver consumers value for beauty products, particularly hair tools, no matter their price. In 2020, hairstylists Claudio Marino and Bruno Meglio together with entrepreneur Michael Ragosta formed InStyler’s original parent company MM&R Products Inc. Infomercial specialist Mark Levine and Dave Richmond, former CEO and chief innovation officer, were early builders of InStyler as well. InStyler’s signature rotating iron hair tools have generated north of $1 billion in sales, and direct-response marketing has been critical to those sales.

Fugardi describes new InStyler Brands owner Hoziane as a “boutique private equity firm,” and he has a stake in it. The firm is led by Wahid Bastoros, owner of FedEx Times Square, Joe Ali, a former M&A consultant, and Fugardi’s advisory F22 Growth Advisors, according to Fugardi.

“We’re trying to really bring these capabilities around the world, and you have to have a united front to navigate that.”

InStyler Brands has secured Comment Sold as its direct-response partner. The company’s biggest brand by sales, InStyler, has 17 stockkeeping units priced from $35 to $145. It’s primarily available in direct-to-consumer distribution and on Amazon, and bestsellers are the Max Prime Rotating Iron and Freestyle Ionic Ceramic Styler.

Unlike InStyler, Flower Hair Tools and Harry Josh Pro Tools are licensed properties. Flower Hair Tools has 11 SKUs priced from $30 to $100, and its bestsellers are Ionic Travel Dryer, Volumizing Styler and Travel Iron. The brand is carried by Hy-Vee, Walmart and Urban Outfitters. Anthropologie is on deck for October.

Harry Josh Pro Tools has 15 stockkeeping units priced from $175 to $350, and its bestsellers include Pro Dryer 2000, Ceramic Flat Styling Iron 1.25 Inch and Cordless Ceramic Styling Iron 1 Inch. The brand is available at Goop, Shopbop, Dermstore and Ritz Carlton. It’s entering a large undisclosed retailer soon, and salons are another important facet of its distribution.

Since his tenure at InStyler began, Fugardi has been busy improving its profitability. Overall, he shares that the company has “almost tripled the profit profile” as a result of cutting costs and concentrating on profitable SKUs. Fugardi says, “We’re getting activity on all brands, and we’re trying to leverage that to keep a nice balanced portfolio because that gives us strength in the market.”

“What we have is the ability and experience in making any type of tool with any type of feature.”

Going forward, InStyler Brands plans to increase wet goods to improve profitability. They account for less than 2% of its current sales. The company has acquired skincare brand Fairiche as part of a strategy to boost its presence in skincare and wellness. Simultaneously, it’s doubling down on haircare products such as hairspray. Fugardi says, “How do we continue to bring the same quality that one would expect picking up our tools with our wet goods, but also be able to tell that story?”

Wet goods can help diversify InStyler Brands’ business from its reliance on hair tools that people use for years and years. “We have a very low defect rate, very high quality, high durability,” says Fugardi. “Sometimes I run into people and I go InStyler, and they say, ‘Oh yeah, of course I have an InStyler.’ I ask, ‘When did you get that?’ They say, ‘I think about 2016.’ That’s seven years ago. I hear that story a lot.”

Depending on the market research firm making the projection, the hair tools segment is advancing at a compound annual growth rate of around 3% to 5%. Projections in the haircare market broadly are for similar growth, at about 3% to nearly 7%. Although hair tools brands have made splashes lately, especially Dyson, the hair tools segment remains highly fragmented, providing opportunities for a player such as InStyler Brands to gain ground, but indicating it’s wrestling with a multiplicity of competitors in that effort.

If it bulks up with further licenses and brands, the company could maximize its potential to make inroads in the segment. However, that strategy poses risks for distraction. Fugardi suggests InStyler Brands has established an expertise in the hair tools category that it can capitalize on without losing its focus. “We are definitely at this point a bona fide licensing company,” he says. “What we have is the ability and experience in making any type of tool with any type of feature in the business, and we also have the experience of working with licenses.”

InStyler Brands has bolstered its team as it seeks to fortify its business. Its CFO is Ali; head of operations is Arin Meyer, former technical producer at Snap Inc.; global head of communications is public relations specialist Jessica del Mundo; and general counsel is licensing, products and technology law expert Elliot Kermani. InStyler’s board vice chair is Vastoros and board director is Vicki Nguyen, founder of Fairiche.

On top of its business endeavors, Fugardi wants InStyler Brands to heighten community initiatives aimed at bettering the lives of at-risk youth. Combining business and community initiatives, he’s interested in an affiliate program to offer people the chance to sell InStyler products to enhance their entrepreneurial acumen and income. He says the program could “really lift people up and teach them about the business while at the same time being part of the beauty industry.”