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Our story began in 1954 as a small company called D.E.L. Supplies in Brighton, founded by Michael Vans Agnew, who recognised a need for professional hairdressing and animal grooming supplies and scissor and clipper sharpening services.
Michael established self-service trade counters in Brighton and Catford, which operated until the early 1980s.
The business continued to expand, and Michael's son Peter joined the team and opened the first cash & carry wholesale outlet in Hayes, Middlesex. The company became known as Capital (Hair & Beauty), with a new logo to match - a reflection of the company's expansion into London. New stores opened in Hove, Kingston, Dagenham, Croydon, Bournemouth and Aldershot.
Peter's appointment as Managing Director was a significant milestone in the company's growth. New stores were opened in Gillingham, Portsmouth, Brierley Hill, Bristol, Walsall, Harrow, Southampton and Hoddesdon, and a new head office was opened in Patcham, Brighton. In 1999, a direct sales team was established. The logo also had a makeover!
The start of a new century brought a new distribution warehouse in Dagenham and more store openings. 2004 saw Capital's first ecommerce website launch, and in 2005, the company began providing training courses. By the decade's end, Capital had expanded with new stores in northern England and Scotland.
The first store in Northern Ireland opened in Derry in 2010, and soon after, Dublin in the Republic of Ireland was the location for the 30th store! Capital's first mobile-friendly website was launched, making ordering on the go easy, quick, and secure! Further store openings followed, plus the acquisition of M&S Hair & Beauty Supplies (2017) and Hairdressing Supplies (2018) expanding the company's footprint in the north of England and Scotland.
We emerged from lockdown with a fresh look and refreshed dedication to serving hair & beauty professionals. Recognising that the working landscape had shifted significantly post-pandemic and that more professionals were self-employed freelancers, we launched our first "Freelance Focus" Campaign, which provided a guide to help our customers navigate the challenges of self-employment.
In June 2023, a devastating fire broke out at our Burgess Hill warehouse, one of our largest and most important distribution centres. The fire was reported in the afternoon and continued to burn for more than 24 hours, causing significant damage to the warehouse structure and the loss of goods stored within. Thankfully, no one was injured during the fire, and we quickly began to make arrangements to ensure that our customers were not impacted.
2024 will mark a significant milestone as we celebrate 70 years of unwavering dedication to serving hair and beauty professionals. It's incredible to think that back in 1954, the Capital brand started as a small family-run business. Now, we have 60 branches across the U.K. and Ireland. We are immensely grateful for the loyalty of our customers, both old and new, as we couldn't have come this far without you. We want to express our heartfelt thanks for your support, and we look forward to many more years of serving the amazingly talented and resilient Hair and Beauty Trade!
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Post: Receive our bi-monthly mailer full of offers and new products.
This privacy policy sets out how Capital Hair and Beauty Ltd (CHB) uses and protects any information that you provide when using the capitalhairandbeauty.co.uk website or otherwise provide CHB with your personal information.
CHB is committed to protecting your privacy. If we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using the website, you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy policy. We treat all your personal information as fully confidential and do not pass your information on to third parties without consent unless legally required to do so.
By providing us with your personal information, you agree and consent to its transfer, processing, use and disclosure as outlined in this privacy policy. This policy does not apply to data you place on any publicly accessible page. For example, when you submit a product review.
CHB may change this policy by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure you are happy with the changes. This policy is effective from 21st May 2018.
When you shop on this site or in one of our stores, personal information such as your name, email address, phone number, invoice/delivery addresses, type of business and, where applicable the IP address used to connect your computer to the internet are collected by us. This data enables us to process and fulfil your order or transaction. We also ask for your mobile number, which helps us (and courier companies working on our behalf) to contact you if there’s a problem with your order.
We may collect technical information regarding the type of electronic
device used, such as the make and model, operating system, internet browser
and also which pages of the site are visited and for how long. This is
statistical data about our users' browsing behaviour and does not identify
you personally. Debit/credit card details are entered on secure pages
hosted by our payment service providers, whether this be Secure Trading or
PayPal, this data is stored securely on their servers, we do not have
access to this. Where card details are given for payment processing over the phone, we do not record or store these details.
We also use CCTV in our stores for the security of our employees and customers.
Personal data collected is used in the processing and delivering of orders. Names, email addresses, mobile numbers, postal addresses and business type may also be used to send you marketing communications (if you have opted in to receive them). You can opt out of these at any time by visiting ‘my preferences’ in your online account.
Browsing behaviour data is collected and analysed to see how well our website is performing on a variety of electronic devices and internet browsers.
We also use this data for remarketing in conjunction with Google, which allows us to display adverts to you on third party websites after you have visited our website. To opt out of this please visit Google’s ad settings.
Personal data is stored on secure servers, separate to the website server. We may share this information with third party service providers employed by us to perform functions on our behalf, such as courier companies delivering orders, mailing companies sending postal mail, email service providers sending emails and texts (SMS) and payment service providers processing payments. PayPal transactions are subject to the PayPal privacy policy.
We may also share certain data including email addresses (if you are opted in to receive emails from us) with third party social media platforms in order to show you targeted ads when you visit them. Third parties such as Google use cookies to store browsing behaviour data, which enables us to use their remarketing services. Please refer to our cookie policy for more information.
We require this information to provide you with a service (processing orders), it also helps us to ensure that content on our sites is presented in the best way for you and the electronic device used to access the content. To send you information regarding our products or services (if requested by you), protect you and us against fraud and to notify you about changes to our service.
This data will be processed when your order is picked, packed and dispatched by our distribution centre, or if you enter a competition or free prize draw. It will also be used every time we send a marketing communication, if you have opted in and the communication is deemed by us to be relevant to you.
Any user specific browsing data will be retained for 26 months after you last visited our site, after which time it will be deleted.
To unsubscribe from marketing communications please visit the ‘my account’ section of your online account and select ‘my details and preferences’. You can then change your opt in preferences for email, text and post. Alternatively simply click on the unsubscribe links that are sent out with each email/text or get in contact with us.
You have the right to request a copy of the data we hold about you, or to have your data erased in certain circumstances. Please contact us if you’d like to request this. Please note that depending on your interactions with us, some data may need to be retained due to legal requirements.
This policy was last updated on 23rd May 2018