A Cardiff-based online booking platform for mobile hair and makeup services is ramping up its plans for expansion with the appointment of a leading private banking expert.
Glamdeva has appointed Louise Santaana as its new chief executive as it looks to double its operations over the next 12 months.
The expansion will see five new jobs be created at the company’s headquarters in Regents Court on Cardiff Bay.
Ms Santaana, a qualified lawyer and the former head of private banking and lending at Lloyds TSB, will use her financial and commercial experience in the role to explore strategic partnerships, new advertising, marketing campaigns as well as attract external finance.
She will also look to leverage the firm’s customer experience journey to expand its customer base across the 海角视频.
Glamdeva currently has over 30,000 registered users and is looking to grow this to 250,000 over the next 12 months.
It plans to increase the number of artists and stylists on its platform to over 1,000 and expand treatments it offers to include nails, eyebrows and aesthetics like botox and filler injections. However, the firm said aesthetic treatments would require a different booking procedure and will be available through in-clinic bookings only rather than mobile.
Through these expansion plans, the company is aiming to achieve a turnover of £500,000 in the next 12 months but hopes this could increase if it can raise investment to accelerate its marketing spend and overall growth.
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The company was founded by Gurinder Randeva in 2019.
It is the sister business to Add to Cart, an online marketplace offering e-commerce for independent retailers which is run by Ms Randeva’s husband, Tej Randeva.
Glamdeva works by allowing customers to enter their booking details and compare real-time prices of 400 approved beauty and hair specialists.
It will display a range of local and national professionals, along with their prices, recent photos of the stylists work and the distance from the user’s location.
If users are happy with the price and the artists, payment is taken using a secure gateway and direct communication to the stylist is given.
On the service side, the firm’s onboarding team verifies mobile hair and make-up professionals wanting to join before giving them access to the cloud-based booking system.
The mobile beauty professional will then have control of everything about their business, including the services they offer, prices, availability and operating days and times. They can also set their coverage and the maximum miles they will cover.
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Ms Randeva said the appointment of Ms Santaana was a major coup as the business looks to scale-up quickly.
She said: “Louise has a wealth of finance and business experience that she can bring to the company, not to mention a network of contacts that we can use to explore new partnerships and opportunities.”
She added: “While there is fierce competition in our sector, none of our rivals can match our nationwide coverage or the simplicity of the customer journey. We have also added a new makeup tools brand in GLAMX, something we started during the pandemic and is really growing in popularity.”
Ms Santaana said: “This is such an exciting time for Glamdeva, with the technology firmly established and a growing number of users and stylists wanting to join our community. 2022 is going to be the year we scale.
“The feedback from people who use us is superb and one of my key roles will be to raise the profile of the brand and our services, not to mention looking at strategic partnerships where we can offer a solution. This could be a TV production company, entertainment venue or a wedding planner for example.”
She added: “As a society, we are increasingly turning to online marketplaces to access services - my job is to work with Gurinder and the team to ensure that when people look for beauty and hair services they choose Glamdeva.”