the Waltons
As Ireland’s only indigenous therapy, seaweed baths have a 300-year history that has waned in recent decades. We talk to a family which has revived the tradition and created a range of organic products and treatments that are selling worldwide
JULIE CRAMER » JOURNALIST » SPA BUSINESS I
t’s a cold, blustery spring day in Stran- dhill, County Sligo, and rain is lashing the headquarters of Voya, the Irish sea- weed company that’s rapidly gaining a reputation for its products and treat-
ments in leading spas around the world. While managing director Mark Walton and
his wife Kira, fresh from an Algarve busi- ness trip, catch up on administration, Mark’s father Mick is braving the elements off the nearby coast, working alongside the compa- ny’s trusted team of seaweed harvesters. Seaweed is in the Walton family’s blood,
with a business dating back to the early 1900s. And while today’s leading spa product companies may covet and strive for certified organic status – this is something that comes entirely naturally to the Walton clan. Mark says: “My father grew up with a sim-
ple view on life and always considered the impact on others. Even when chemical ferti- lisers were being used to great effect during
the 60s and 70s, my father saw no reason to change traditions. He was one of the found- ers of the organic movement in Ireland, and you’ll still find him out hand-harvesting sea- weed, even though he’s now in his 60s.” In the early 1900s there were several hun-
dred seaweed bathhouses scattered around Ireland’s coast, with a particular concentra- tion in Sligo in the north-west. Hurricane Debbie destroyed the county’s last traditional facility in the 60s, but in 2000 the Waltons opened a modern, 14-room treatment facil- ity in the bustling seaside town of Strandhill. Freshly picked seaweed is combined with heated seawater to provide therapeutic baths for visitors from all over the world. “Te baths can be used to treat a variety of
complaints, such as psoriasis, eczema and rheumatic pains,” says Mark. “Around 60 per cent of visitors come with genuine skin complaints, while the other 40 per cent are attracted by the beauty benefits.”
Sligo has been revived as a seaweed bath
mecca, with the local population of 2,000 swelling to 40,000 each year with the influx of health tourists. From this popularity base, Mark and Kira have taken the family busi- ness in a fresh new direction, masterminding a large range of spa treatments and retail products that are now being snapped up by leading international companies such as Te Four Seasons, St Regis, Ritz-Carlton, Canyon Ranch and Waldorf-Astoria. Tey’ve even made their way into Te Chateau – a castle in the Malaysian rainforest (see p36).
HEALTH TOURISTS
Mark says: “Around 40 per of our customers in Sligo are international, and they were say- ing to us ‘we can’t come back every year, so how can we take the experience with us?’ So we started looking at what seaweed products were around – there were some, but their effi- cacy was poor and they weren’t organic.” Te couple’s first product to market in
2001 was a wild seaweed (fucus serratus) bath product – called Lazy Days – which Kira describes as a dried block half the size of a shoebox that comes wrapped in a net. When immersed in warm water it expands to five times its original size to create a rich seaweed bath. Further squeezing the sea- weed releases a nutritious oily gel. “The product is dried out naturally on
the beach, so it’s still live and active when it reaches the customer,” says Kira. “You can also keep the seaweed in its net and use it as a loofah. And when you’re finished, it makes an organic fertiliser for the garden,” she says. A decade later, Voya now has over 100
There are around 30 Voya treatments offered in high-end spas such as St Regis and Four Seasons 78 Read Spa Business online
spabusiness.com / digital
products, with sales of around 40 per cent in direct retail and 60 per cent in the profes- sional spa market. One of the best sellers is My Little Hero, an oil-based seaweed anti- ageing serum sold for €55 (us$67, £43). Developing treatments is a core part of Voya’s business. In its professional range of
SPA BUSINESS 3 2012 ©Cybertrek 2012
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