A digital employee for hairdressers

The Cube Club is one of the few start-ups in Germany that is active in the craft industry. Founder Stelios Tassias developed an electronic tube squeezer for hair salons.

Stelios Tassias has now been working as a hairdresser for 38 years. First 13 years in the noble hotel Nassauer Hof in Wiesbaden, since 2008 with his salon "Beauty Concept Store". On more than 300 square meters, he cuts the hair of his customers there almost every day. But something bothered the master hairdresser during his work for many years.

"Throwing away expensive colors has long been a thorn in my side," says Tassias. "The commercial tube presses are cumbersome and not effective." Too much residual ink would be left in the packaging. And so the idea was born to combine a machine for squeezing tubes with a procurement platform and app.

Plastic waste is a problem throughout Germany. More than six million tons are generated every year. The Federal Association of the German Waste Management, Water and Raw Materials Industry can't say how many of these would actually fall on the hairdressing trade, but every bit of reduction can only help. After all, the main waste problems in hairdressing businesses are usually caused by voluminous packaging materials, such as plastic containers, dye tubes and spray cans, but also by substances that pollute wastewater, such as perming agents.

The BDE therefore welcomes ideas such as that of The Cube Club. "Any initiative that focuses on sustainability is good," says a spokesman for the association. "At some point, even the most carefully squeezed tube will surely be empty, but every saved package counts." In addition, better squeezed tubes would help sorting facilities. The German Confederation of Skilled Crafts also welcomes innovation in the industry.

However, Tassias' idea of a black, cube-shaped device called a "Cube" is designed to help hairdressers save time and money in addition to chemical waste. The Cube is usually placed in the salon's laboratory or mixing corner, where material consumption takes place. Every product that the hairdresser takes from the shelf or store and applies is registered by the scanner integrated in the cube. So a new tube automatically goes into the shopping cart of an associated app for reordering. The electronic part is what's new about the idea: Until now, hairdressers pressed out their tubes by hand or with a crank tube presser. The device works more precisely, according to the founder.

In 2015, Tassias developed the first prototype. He filed a patent for it in 2018. Since August 2021, the start-up has had a patent on how the rollers work. Tassias is therefore not afraid of competition so far. "At the moment, there is nothing comparable with this great added value for saving resources," he says.

In April 2020, he finally founded the start-up and ordering platform The Cube Club with his partner Richard Beetz. "He found the idea very exciting and is responsible for the digitalization," he says of the business informatics specialist, who previously worked in digital transformation projects for 15 years. The hardware and app are provided free of charge by The Cube Club. "Hairdressers can therefore test without making a commitment," Tassias says.

Around 10,000 items hairdressers now order via the Cube - and automatically end up in the founder's own wholesale store. That's because Tassias has linked his Cube to his own mail-order business. In this way, he wants to profit not only by selling his machine, but also by distributing the colors. It takes about three days for the delivery to arrive at the salon, the founder promises. The products he sells now include not only tubes from brands ranging from Wella to L'Oréal, but also other products from shampoo to styling chairs.

A salon with two employees is said to save between 500 and 1000 euros a year thanks to the tube. "Up to one euro can be saved per tube," Tassias said. In the summer of 2021, his start-up tested its complete package over three months with ten salons, with success. In October 2021, Tassias was able to win over investor Dominik Benner of The Platform Group, a group of companies for the digitalization of stationary trade that works with retailers and wholesalers, such as Schuhe24 and Bikeangebot.