- Category
Efficacy and Diversity Cashes
Category: Spa Product Date: March 2008
Lucy Whittaker was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, and moved to Hong Kong in 1989. Actively involved in the customer service arena for over 15 years, Lucy created the first of the Beautiful Skin Centers in Hong Kong’s Pacific Place in 1991. As a therapist and businesswoman, her knowledge of the beauty and spa industry, coupled with her motivation, vision and customer service philosophy, established the Beautiful Skin Centre brand as a household name in skincare in Hong Kong. With the merger of the Frederique Group and the Beautiful Skin Centre Group in October 2003, Lucy has chosen the role of Director, Distribution and manages the company, Paua Supplies.
Paua Supplies is a subsidiary of The Paua Group, which distributes quality beauty products to spas, salons, retail outlets and department stores throughout Asia. Paua Supplies is currently the exclusive distributor for Elemis, LaTherapie, Murad, Caron, St.Tropez, Comptoir Sud Pacifique, Gentle Touch Whitening and Fragrant Earth.
What is the target for your products？We target high-end spas and skincare centers. In total we have 120 accounts, some of these are exclusively Elemis accounts however most will want to carry 2 ranges. As Elemis and Murad complement each other i.e. one being a spa brand and the other a Dr. Brand we find most of our accounts will take both of these ranges. Some of our customers have several outlets and others might be just small but exclusive skincare centers so orders range considerably and vary depending on time of year, new product releases and the general economic climate. An Elemis anti-aging product is priced at approximately HKD1,400 however cleansers and toners start from HKD320.
What is the process for introducing these products to a spa and what is your role in the whole process?The Sales Executives are responsible for creating a target list of accounts which are in line with where we want to see our brands. They arrange a meeting with the decision maker for the spa or skin care center. It’s important to get the products into people’s hands and get them to try them. This might be done by offering a treatment or providing the potential customer with products to try at home. A follow up meeting is arranged and if an account is opened we start the process of arranging training for staff and marketing plans to be presented.
What is your unique point, compare with other spa products in the market now？Elemis is a completely unique spa brand, it invests most of its profits into research and development ensuring every year there is a steady stream of new products coming to the market. Often these have been independently tested for their efficacy before being released and this has extended to their treatments now, which have efficacy results after just one treatment.
Murad as mentioned is one of the leading clinical skincare ranges in the world. Dr. Murad was the first in so many areas of skincare including: the first to create a clinical skincare range, the first to develop a medi-spa, he did ground breaking research on the introduction of Vitamin C and AHA’s and is described as the father of internal skincare in the US for his work on the development of supplements to treatment everything from acne to cellulite. Due to its credibility and the results clients see when they use this range we have seen sales grow beyond what we thought possible.
How do you see the Chinese spa product market? At the moments I see the Chinese spa product market as being slightly limited but as more brands enter into this market place it will become more competitive. Brands will need to provide better levels of education and service to their customers. It’s an exciting prospect and I see this growth and entry of new brands as being very positive.
