The face behind the BRAND

Aveda Vice President General Manager UK and Ireland Luke Evans on sustainability and improving your management skills

1  Can you tell us about your role at Aveda?

My main responsibility is to lead the overall brand strategy across the UK and Ireland. This includes sales, marketing, communications, education and online. A lot of this is underpinned by our salon network which is the true representation of our brand. Our vision is to become the beauty destination for the conscious consumer with a high-performance vegan and natural professional hair care offering. Our aim is to advance consumers' lives with professional quality products and unique direct to consumer and salon experiences.

2  What do you love most about the hairdressing industry?

Hairdressers are the most passionate, creative and talented group of individuals I’ve ever met and we try to showcase this at Aveda. The third lockdown really showed the sheer resilience, passion and energy this incredible group of individuals have.

3  What does the Aveda philosophy mean to you? 

One of Aveda’s fundamental missions is to care for the world and it’s been at the forefront of every decision we’ve made over the past 12 months. We were born cruelty-free and never tested on animals and we're a leader in natural high performance hair care products. We’ve prioritised sustainability since the start and continue to set new benchmarks.

We believe there is no responsible way to do business other than through sustainability and it informs every decision I make within my life and my role at Aveda.

4  Why did Aveda become a 100% vegan brand earlier this year?

We started the transition into becoming a 100% vegan brand three years ago. We saw this as the natural next step to care for the world. We wanted to offer a vegan high-performance brand for consumers and professional hair salons.

5  What’s next for Aveda in terms of sustainability?

As the first beauty brand to use 100% Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) materials we’re delighted to announce our full circle recycling programme will start from mid-June. It’s a natural step for Aveda in our quest to minimise packaging, maximise recycling and the use of recycled content.

Most Aveda products are recyclable at home. A handful are not due to the composition and shape of the material so we’re encouraging guests to reuse these items where possible. When finished we’re encouraging them to drop off these non-recyclables at participating Aveda salons in exchange for 200 Aveda points.

6  How can hair salons and hairdressers become more sustainable?

We share our best practises with our network such as limiting electricity and water where possible.

We’re going to have an official trade sustainability ambassador soon so watch this space. We’re also partnering with specialist agencies such as the Green Salon Collective to help the unrecyclable to become recyclable.

7 What are Aveda’s latest initiatives for the hairdressing industry?

Our new industry-first initiative, Powered by Flossie, supports our salons by helping rebuild and grow their businesses with new clients by using our extensive Aveda retail customer database. We receive over 4,000 visits to our website each day and we want to drive people from our website to our Aveda partner salons. Powered by Flossie curates available appointment times across the network of Aveda salons and promotes them through social media and aveda.co.uk, allowing guests to seamlessly book an appointment online.

We’re encouraging retail guests who may have never been to an Aveda salon before to experience one.

We’ve also made steps in social media training – upskilling and inspiring our teams to produce creative hair content.

8  What has the pandemic taught you on a professional level?

The Aveda mission to care for the world and others has never been more relevant. We're fully inclusive and always open to discussions and new ideas. We have an authentic mission and I’d personally love to connect with all of you on my LinkedIn.

9  What books would you recommend to improve leadership skills within the salon? 

Leonard A Lauder has a book called The Company I Keep: My Life In Beauty. It’s a captivating account of the lessons learned while transforming the Estée Lauder company. I'd also highly recommend the social media platform Clubhouse as you can hear first-hand accounts from industry leaders.

THREE FACTS ABOUT LUKE...