Barber must pay €62k damages for franchise breach

A barber has been ordered by a judge to pay damages of €62,000 to a well-known barbershop chain for styling his hairdressing shop as part of the brand he had ended a five-year franchise agreement with.

Judge Petria McDonnell told Greg Coleman in the Circuit Civil Court that his barbershop was a complete copy of the well-known Boston Barbers brand of shops he had decided to break away from.

Mr Coleman had been sued by Les Duffy, founder of the Boston Barbers franchise company, Boston Brand Bars Limited, who alleged that after quitting the franchise in Cork, Mr Coleman had continued to pass off his shop as part of a chain.

Mr Duffy told counsel Hugh O’Flaherty that he first agreed a franchise arrangement with Mr Coleman in 2009.

He said Mr Coleman had agreed to run a store titled ‘Boston Barbers Blackpool’ and pay monthly royalties based on income in return for using the brand name identifying his shop as part of the highly successful chain.

He told Mr O’Flaherty, who appeared with Gaffney Halligan solicitors, that he had met Mr Coleman numerous times to plan the opening of a store in the Blackpool Shopping Centre in Cork city.

In 2014, when the franchise agreement was coming to an end, Mr Coleman had told him he was not to renew the franchise agreement.

Mr Duffy said that in 2015, Mr Coleman continued to run a barbershop, called Blackpool Barbers, in the same premises, which he claimed breached their agreement stipulating that another hairdressing business could not be run for a period of a year by Mr Coleman after their contract ended.

Mr Duffy told the court Mr Coleman used the same trademark signage lettering over his shop with a very distinctive red and white barber pole interlocked in the word Barbers and which was exclusive to the Boston Barbers brand.

He said Mr Duffy had changed the name of the shop only slightly to ‘Blackpool Barbers’.

Judge McDonnell said Mr Coleman’s actions were “contrived,” referring to what she said was the fact he had signed his re-named business over to his mother and sister and becoming a director himself believing he was keeping himself within the law”.

The judge said Mr Coleman had been actively in breach of his franchise agreement by continuing to be involved with a barbershop business despite being legally restricted to not setting up a competing business for a year after any termination of the franchise agreement.

Judge McDonnell ordered Mr Coleman pay €45,000 in relation to five years of royalties and a sum of €17,000 for having breached his contract with Boston Brand Bars Limited.