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PRODUCT NEWS
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| Wahanda acquires German equivalent Salonmeister as part of expansion plan |
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| 13 Oct 2014 . BY Helen Andrews |
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| Wahanda, the online spa booking platform, was launched in 2012 by CEO Lopo Champalimaud / Wahanda |
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Europe’s largest hair and beauty booking platform, Wahanda, has acquired its German equivalent Salonmeister as part of a strategy to expand and integrate into a single global marketplace.
Based in Berlin, Salonmeister is the leading hair and beauty booking platform in Germany, Austria & Switzerland, with more than 1,000 spa and salon suppliers. It generates more than 20,000 bookings per month across 15 cities.
The acquisition was made possible after Wahanda received US$26m (€20.6m, £16m) of investment from RGIP, Fidelity Growth Partners and Lepe Partners earlier this year.
“Acquiring Salonmeister is the first step in our long-term plan to expand the business across Europe,” said Wahanda’s CEO Lopo Champalimaud. “Salonmeister immediately struck us as a company that shares the same values as Wahanda – in particular an uncompromising dedication to great customer service every day, using leading-industry software.”
Current CEO of Salonmeister, Louis Pfitzner, will continue to run the business with co-founders Phillipp Rechberg and Nils Griess-Nega.
“The German hair and beauty marketplace is a vibrant and exciting one – and is enjoying similar growth opportunities to the UK,” continued Champalimaud.
According to a statement by Wahanda, the UK health, beauty and wellness industry is worth US$10bn (€7.9bn, £6.2bn). Wahanda reports it is growing at 200 per cent year-on-year. Customers can now book appointments at 6,000 spas and salons in the UK using Wahanda’s online booking platform. Spas and salons working with Wahanda are seeing an average increase in bookings of 25-30 per cent.
“We are impressed with what Salonmeister has built so far and we are looking forward to working closely with them as we make a large investment to develop the technology further, grow the consumer base and substantially increase the base of spas and salons on our platform in the German language market,” added Champalimaud.
Louis Pfitzner, CEO at Salonmeister said: “The deal is incredibly exciting for us as we look to continue our expansion across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. We are also really looking forward to being able to offer Wahanda’s technology to our partners and users, to ensure that our customers continue to enjoy the benefits and convenience that we offer.
“Following the acquisition, we are looking to boost our sales and marketing teams as part of a renewed growth push,” said Pfitzner.
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