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OPINION


Chee Kwong Low


Managing director, Skin Essentials Spas, Malaysia


S


kin Essentials was formed in 1994, by myself and my wife, Kim. It was a modest start: an area of just over 200sq ft (19sq m) in a hair salon. Now


we operate 14 beauty spas in Kuala Lumpur, three elsewhere in Malaysia and have a fur- ther 45 franchised sites across the country. On average we open three spas year. The sites range from 1,000-5,000sq ft (93-


464sq m) with six to 24 treatment rooms. We offer 10 facials, at US$23-46 (¤17-34, £14-29), fi sh refl exology and aromatherapy and have our own skincare line, called Herbaline. We collect a training and set-up fee and,


thereafter, supply products and provide peri- odic training and business meetings, sharing the hands-on experience from our 17 spas and 8,000 monthly customers. The investment franchisees need is around US$4,000 (¤3,000, £2,500) per 100sq ft (9sq m). In our own spas,


we typically make a return on investment (ROI) in 18-24 months. For franchisees it depends on their attitude – we don’t promise them a ROI. We look for sincerity, willingness to learn and to work hard and some business foresight in potential franchisees. Franchising does open up spas to a new


market, but I’m not sure this market is reli- able. In not so well developed countries, including Malaysia, the attitude for spa franchising is not mature yet and it’s dif- fi cult to create uniformity of service and achieve the same level of customer satis- faction in all of our franchised spas. Also, after franchisees have learnt the business from us and have set up a few sites, they then start to establish their own brand. Franchising was the original plan during


the infant stage, mainly to generate more revenue. But this is not the best way to build


Skin Essential Spas are often set up in residential areas to serve the local community rather than in city centres


a good brand in Malaysia. At present, the 17 branches we operate ourselves contribute 75 per cent of the turnover, while the 45 fran- chised spas only account for 25 per cent. In the last few years, we have stopped


recruiting new franchisees. Now we are putting more effort into setting up our own beauty spas and retaining control by giving branch managers the opportunity to run them, which has improved sales and helped build a good brand reputation.


Prior to Skin Essentials, Low worked as an accountant. Details: www.herbaline.com.my


Franchising was the original plan during the infant


stage, mainly to generate more revenue. But this is not the best way to build a good brand in Malaysia


96 spa business handbook 2012 www.spahandbook.com


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