FEATURE
PROUD OF MY ROOTS
From launching her hair extensions business from a spare bedroom on Teesside to turning over £ 20m , Victoria Lynch is determined to be world number one . Peter Barron reports
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PICTURES : CHRIS BOOTH
s she looks down from a suite of offices to the distribution centre dispatching her products worldwide , Victoria Lynch is justifiably proud of how far she ’ s come .
Proud but not yet totally satisfied – because she insists there ’ s still a long way to go .
“ It ’ s America next and , when we ’ re global number one , I might relax ,” she smiles .
Not once , in an interview lasting an hour , does Victoria use the word if . Such is her self-belief , it ’ s invariably when .
That confidence is well placed given the extraordinary growth of her hair extension business , Additional Lengths , which was launched in a spare bedroom in Stockton 21 years ago and last year turned over £ 20m .
Now , the award-winning entrepreneur is looking to extend the success story even further , with plans to establish an American operation , while also investing time in guiding new start-ups on Teesside .
“ The global hair-extension market is forecast to increase from £ 4.88bn in 2024 to £ 10.7bn by 2032 , and we aim to be the world ’ s biggest brand by then ,” she says .
“ But I also want to help others starting out in business by using my own experience .”
That experience began in humble surroundings . Victoria spent her early years in Port Clarence and Billingham before her family settled in Stockton .
Dad , Reg , was a mechanic , and mum , Irene , worked at the KP Foods crisp factory in Billingham before the couple had their own stab at entrepreneurship by running a mobile shop .
Victoria ’ s passion for hair began when she was 13 . Her stepsister was a hairdresser and she set out to understand the profession , using her mum as guinea pig for perming and highlights .
A year later , she had her first go at applying synthetic extensions to the hair of a local schoolgirl of West Indian descent .
“ I ’ d braided her hair for a while and hair extensions were an evolving trend . It was something new and I loved it ,” she recalls .
Word spread . At 15 , with more and more people asking for hair extensions , her parents hired a car to drive her to different locations in search of new suppliers .
Meanwhile , Victoria had informed careers advisors that her ambition was to be an embalmer , and she even registered with the British Institute of Embalmers .
“ I wanted to make people look nice for their funerals and do their hair , but it wasn ’ t considered appropriate work experience !” she explains .
However , her history teacher ’ s husband owned the Thomas Rea Funeral Parlour in Thornaby and arranged for Victoria to go there to get a taste of life – and death .
When she left school , she applied to Co-op Funerals , but she received a reply saying there were no vacancies . Instead , she worked as a machine operator at a cake factory before moving on to KP Foods .
While she did morning shifts at the crisp factory , afternoons were spent making extra money by doing hair .
By the time she was 18 she ’ d moved on to using human hair and the customer-base kept getting longer .
At 22 , Victoria decided she could no longer juggle factory work with the increasing number of hair customers .
Converting the spare bedroom at her parents ’ house into a salon , she focused on turning her hobby into a serious business .
“ More and more people wanted me to show them how it was done , and I could see I would soon have competition ,” she says . “ I needed to stay in front .”
The voice of business in the Tees region | 15