Beauty Brands closing 25 stores, including three in Indianapolis area

Beauty Brands, a regional chain of salon and spa superstores, plans to close three of its four locations in the Indianapolis area as part of a major corporate restructuring.

Stores in Fishers (8510 E. 96th St.), Carmel (2554 E. 146th St.) and Greenwood (745 U.S. 31 N.) are slated to close in mid-February, according to a list the company released last month.

A Beauty Brands store in Avon (9774 E. U.S. 36) will remain open.

The Kansas City-based company said it would close 25 stores in nine states overall, leaving it with 22 stores in 10 states.

The 24-year-old private company had a peak of 65 stores in 11 states in 2013, but has slowly downsized in recent years amid heavy competition from retailers such as Ulta Beauty and Sephora and online sellers like Amazon.

“This year has proven to be a tough year for our business despite our efforts to combat industry headwinds,” Beauty Brands CEO Caryn Lerner said in written comments. “Necessary organizational changes are required heading into the new year."

In addition to selling a wide variety of cosmetic, skin, hair and fragrance products, Beauty Brands stores offer salon and spa treatments for women and men, including haircuts, coloring, hair extensions, manicures and pedicures, massages and spray tanning.

Beauty Brands closures also will affect six stores in Arizona, five in Texas, three in Oklahoma, two each in Colorado, Nebraska and Ohio, and one each in Iowa and North Carolina.

The company also plans to reduce employment at its headquarters in Kansas City by about a third, leaving it with 50 employees.

“Make no mistake, these are difficult decisions which we did not take lightly," Lerner said. "We sincerely thank all our Beauty Brands employees for their
hard work and dedication this year as we focus on growing our business and serving our loyal customers."

Bob Bernstein, co-founder of Kansas City advertising firm Bernstein-Rein, founded Beauty Brands in 1995. He sold his majority interest in 2013 to a California-based buyout group led by Lyn Kirby, the former CEO of Ulta Beauty.

The company began opening stores in Indiana more than a decade ago.