Regional Owners Eye Fantastic Sams Chain

A group of regional franchise owners is entering the competition to gain control of the financially troubled hair-styling chain Fantastic Sams from its parent.

Los Angeles-based investment bank Seidler Cos. said Wednesday that a consortium of “about 80%” of the chain’s 36 regional owners from across the U.S. has hired it as an advisor in an effort to buy the assets of FS Concepts, a subsidiary of Anaheim-based Opal Concepts Inc.

The consortium, known as FAS Co., is competing with Cheveaux, the chain’s regional franchiser in New England, along with any other potential bidders.

Cheveaux is in the due diligence stage of negotiations for the assets, but hasn’t made a formal offer, said Shawn Thompson, a consultant who was brought in as acting chief financial officer for Opal last year.

Opal Concepts and its affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Santa Ana in July. Any agreement to acquire the firm’s assets could be outbid in Bankruptcy Court.

Thompson declined to discuss a possible sale price, but said, “If somebody comes in with a bid of $20 million, we’re not going to turn it down.”

Opal Concepts bought the chain -- which was founded in 1974 and has about 1,300 salons, including 200 in Southern California -- in 1995 for an undisclosed sum.

In the chain’s three-tiered franchise system, FS Concepts is the “master franchiser” and licensor of the salons. FS Concepts sells territories to regional owners, who own the exclusive rights to sell Fantastic Sams franchises in their areas. In return, the regional owners provide management support to franchisees of individual salons.

Regis Corp., which operates Supercuts, is the lead bidder for Opal’s other salon chains, including Carlton Hair and Jose Eber Atelier, with an offer of $11 million, Thompson said.