A hair salon and beauty brand has secured a £16 million private equity investment to support a national expansion.

Rush, which has five salons in Kent, has been on a regional salon opening programme which has taken it to Manchester, Liverpool, Nottingham, Birmingham, Bristol and York.

The company has secured minority backing from mid-market private equity firm LDC to support its plans to double its location count over the next four years.

Rush began with a single salon in Wimbledon 22 years ago run by hairdressers Andy Phouli and Stell Andrew.

Today it generates sales of £36 million with earnings before interest, taxes and other charges of £4 million.

It employs 1,100 stylists and beauticians serving 13,000 customers a week at its 85 salons, including sites in Canterbury, Maidstone, Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells and Bromley.

“Until now we have grown our business organically but felt the time was right to turbo-charge our expansion plans, which is why private equity investment is a natural next step for us..." - Stell Andrew, Rush

It will open a Covent Garden academy where it will train stylists and invest in Shop Rush, the group’s online hair and beauty e-commerce platform.

L’Oreal is a key strategic brand partner, supplying both retail and professional products.

The investment from LDC – the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group – comes as the UK hair market is forecast to grow by 2% a year over the next five years. It is currently worth £6.7 billion.

Rush founder Stell Andrew said: “Until now we have grown our business organically but felt the time was right to turbo-charge our expansion plans, which is why private equity investment is a natural next step for us.

“We are now in a position to substantially increase our national presence and bring the Rush brand to more customers across the country.”

Alastair Weinel, investment director for LDC in the South, said: “Rush has a proven scalable model.

“Its strong brand proposition means the business in an ideal position to push on and grow its UK footprint.”