Hairdryer and straightener-maker GHD plans to invest more than £325 million in the UK over the next five years as it bets big on British technology.
The firm, whose full name is Good Hair Day, plans to plough money into its research and innovation site in Cambridge.
The company was founded in 2001 in Leeds and has since grown into a global brand, with tools used by Victoria Beckham at her Paris Fashion Week show this autumn.
Boss Jeroen Temmerman feels ‘extremely positive and impressed’ with the UK’s tech sector.
He said: ‘I think it’s now time to invest in engineering and in-depth capabilities in technology in the UK.’
Straight up: GHD plans to plough money into its research and innovation site in Cambridge
The pandemic saw hairstyling become more important than ever, he added, ‘because you cannot show your shoes or your bag [on Zoom], but you can show your hair’.
At GHD’s main site, its team of physicists and engineers are working on pioneering devices that can ‘communicate with the customer’.
This already includes one product – a £239 Platinum+ hair straightener – that can detect if hair is thin, thick or fine. It can then adapt the heat accordingly to minimise any damage.
GHD’s investment into research – which all takes place in the UK –has almost doubled over the past four years.
Future investment will fund work using artificial intelligence that could lead to more of what the company calls ‘hyper-personalisation’.
Temmerman said GHD would evolve ‘more into a tech beauty company’.
