A White Plains barber entangled in a bitter dispute with his business partner is trying to trim his losses.
Alfred Ndoj petitioned Westchester Supreme Court on Oct. 30 to dissolve and liquidate Handlebar Men’s Salon, arguing that relations with partner Agon Gega are so strained that they are unable to agree on how to run the business.
Recent arguments between the men “were so acrimonious,” the petition states, “that on at least once occasion a colleague needed to step in to diffuse the situation.”
Ndoj and Gega formed the business in 2019, with each man investing $50,000 in the venture and each owning half of the shares. In 2020, they opened the barber shop and men’s salon on Court Street in downtown White Plains.
Handlebar’s website describes the shop as a place where barbers listen, build trust and help men relax and feel great.
But in April 2024, Ndoj says, a dispute began when Gega allegedly went into business with a Handlebar competitor.
They amended their partnership agreement, according to the petition, agreeing to devote their time and attention to Handlebar’s day-to-day operations, but allowing them to work at other barber shops they owned separately. Handlebar’s website could not link to their other shops, and they would not allow barbers who left Handlebar to work at their other shops for a year.
Despite the deal, Ndoj claims, they must work different schedules because they cannot share the workspace. And their relationship is so discordant and irreconcilable that managing the business has ceased.
Ndoj says he offered to buy out Gega’s shares but has been unable to reach agreement on the barber shop’s value. He believes Gega has received outside offers, yet has not offered Ndoj his right, under their shareholders agreement, for first refusal of an outside offer.
They are so divided, Ndoj argues, “that dissolution would be beneficial” to both barbers.
Gega’s attorney, Rocco F. D’Agostino, White Plains, did not reply to a message asking for his client’s side of the story.
Ndoj is represented by White Plains attorneys Desmond C.B. Lyons and Rachel K. Marcoccia of Harris Beach Murtha Cullina PLLC.
