Menu Natural Spa Factory
Naturally exclusive Natural Spa Factory’s husband and wife leadership team, Jeremy Smith and Emma Webber, discuss the brand’s rise to success, their business beliefs and what the future holds I NT ERV I E W BY I A N PA R KES
T
he rise of Natural Spa Factory, established in 2009, has been remarkable, especially since founders Emma Webber and Jeremy Smith took the decision three years ago to move from being a wholesale business, with retail as a sideline, into supplying products directly to its spa partners and consumers. Today, its natural, authentic products can be found in over 500 spas globally and the brand partners closely with around 150 of those, from the likes of Pennyhill Park, Rudding Park and Ribby Hall Village in the UK, to Kandima Resort in the Maldives and Serenity Spa in Kenya. In retail, Natural Spa Factory offers what it describes as ‘the home-spa experience’ which has seen sales triple over the past 12 months. The brand’s products are formulated according to the four seasons using botanically-sourced ingredients from herbs, plants and flowers, and are free from parabens, SLS and other chemicals. In creating its own packaging as well as products, and delivering from its base in Bath, UK, Natural Spa Factory is effectively a complete product, treatment and marketing solution for spa businesses looking for a point of difference. “We are very competitively priced for ingredients that are the best available,” says Emma Webber. “We have full autonomy and flexibility, making almost anything achievable. That’s how I think we win business, because when we say something, we do it, and we do that for everybody we work with.”
Enhancing personality Natural Spa Factory’s ethos is to work in harmony with the spa, hotel or salon with which it partners, ensuring the business promotes its own brand and values and that its treatment menu is in keeping with the venue, rather than taking a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. “We really encourage spa operators to look at their own business and explore the potential it has, rather than being at the behest of a product house,” says Smith. “We adore working closely with some incredible spas as their primary offering, but we understand there are some spas
42
“We really encourage spa operators to look at their own business and explore the potential it has, rather than being at the behest of a product house.” Emma Webber & Jeremy Smith, Natural Spa Factory
just looking for a way to express their personality, and our treatments are a great way to do so. “We work with 500-plus spas or salons that see us as their chance to create a unique package. In essence, we’ve grown our business by helping other businesses grow, and that’s a really big difference point.” Webber adds: “We’re very focused on individual customers, whether they be city or country spas. It would be infinitely much easier to write a treatment menu, copy it 100 times and pass it out to each spa we work with, but that’s not what we do.”
From cosmetic mud to collections The roots of Natural Spa Factory can be traced back to a makeshift office in the basement of Webber’s home, from where she began selling cosmetic mud, sourced from the Austrian Alps, to a number of UK spas with rasuls. Webber then began making her own scrubs, with her first, a lime and lemongrass formulation, still the company’s biggest seller. Natural Spa Factory now offers four key ranges
for the face and body; the Gold Collection, with actives of grape leaf, pearl, caviar extract and gold; the Illuminate Collection, inspired by rice water used by Japanese Geisha to cleanse their faces; the Capsule Collection, a gender neutral range that employs rose water, tea tree, chamomile, green tea, pomegranate and jojoba; and Bumps A Daisy, for pregnant women, with neroli, mandarin, sweet almond, wheatgerm, rose, ho wood and bitter orange oils. “We are always developing and evolving,” adds Webber. “We are currently working on new launches for spring 2018, including a tri-phase lip treatment, and a bi-phase copper cleanser. “We focus on setting our own trends, not following, and 2018 looks to be one of the most innovative for new product development.”
Exceptional and exclusive Natural Spa Factory is dedicated to providing something unique in the marketplace and Webber believes selling the collections as retail augments the offering of the spas it works with. Furthermore, the company has taken direct action to maintain the prestige of its range. “Everything the spas use, the consumer now has access to, giving the flexibility to create a full home-spa treatment without leaving the house,” she states. “However, we’ve recently taken the bold decision to withdraw from all third-party retail websites. Our retail offering is now solely available at our website and our partner spas, giving them, and us, the advantage of exclusivity compared to other product houses that can be bought on the high street.” Webber claims Natural Spa Factory is only “in first gear” in terms of its product offering and the couple have a passion and a genuine belief that the company can make a difference. “We see exceptional quality and service as paramount, but supporting our industry and empowering the people that work in it is also extremely valuable,” says Smith. “We are here to support and work with spas by thinking of them as individual operations, not carbon copies of the facility around the corner.” www.naturalspafactory.com
www.europeanspamagazine.com