Celebrity styling is apparently a growth business.
Presidio Investors has acquired a majority stake in The Only Agency, which represents celebrity fashion stylists Law Roach, Maeve Reilly, Dani Michelle, Lorenzo Posocco, makeup artist Keita Moore, hairstylist and wig designer Frederic Aspiras, among other talent.
“We went to market a year ago and were looking for a partner to work with to help the agency grow,” said Kent Belden, The Only Agency’s chief executive officer and founder. “Presidio really felt like a great match for the company. And then, as we progressed, it just became more and more apparent that they were absolutely the right fit for us and understood what we want and what we need to do to grow.”
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The agency opened 10 years ago with three employees, including Belden, and has grown to a team of 25 with locations in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville and London, and around 200 clients to date. They also represent talent in Milan, Barcelona and other places, said Belden, and have recently been conducting more business in India and the Middle East.
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With Belden continuing to lead day-to-day operations, The Only Agency plans to enter new markets and make more hires. It plans to double the size of the business over the next five years, the agency revealed.
“It’s grown steadily, and it’s grown smoothly and very organically, and now it’s time to put processes in place,” Belden went on. “We will be bringing on some new key executives to help with the bigger picture of operations.”
He added: “We’re sort of the go-between [for] the movie studios, the record companies, the sports celebrities and the talent that we represent. We want to make sure that while we’re maintaining the level of service that we provide, we are growing horizontally by adding new agents and expanding our capacity to service our artists with the same level of high-touch service, as well as growing in new verticals and new cities, nationally and internationally.”
Sports is a “big focus” he said. “We have many stylists who focus solely on sports celebrities and that’s something that we really see as an area of growth.”
Presidio Investors, based in Austin, is a private equity firm specializing in lower middle market companies with growing, niche businesses in technology, media and financial services. The current investment portfolio includes book and magazine publisher Centennial Media and Podium Audio, a publisher of audio books.
“I feel that there’s a lot of areas and avenues yet for us to explore,” Belden said. “And I feel like with Presidio helping us, we’ll be able to easily execute and grow.”