ESPA PROMOTION
Michael Harmsworth ESPA International has always been a leader in the global spa business but has never been averse to change. The CEO and son of its founder explains how the company he joined 22 years ago is adapting to meet the challenges facing the industry today
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ver since Sue Harmsworth founded ESPA International in 1993, the company has struck a fine balance between consistency and change. On one hand, more than two decades on, this is still a family-run business with an unwavering focus on delivering authentic, effective spa experiences for guests and strong commercial returns for clients. On the other hand, it has grown from a small spa consultancy with a modest natural product line into a world-leading spa management company and product giant, with more than 450 spas in around 60 countries, and clients including Peninsula Hotels, Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton and Mandarin Oriental. Part of the reason for this success has undoubtedly been ESPA’s ability and willingness to adapt its business model to the changing needs of both consumers and the industry. In 2009, the company opened its own factory to keep an even tighter control over quality standards and respond even more quickly to its customers’ needs. Over the past three years, it has also introduced a much more solutions-based approach, offering product-only partnerships and tailored business support alongside its full design, development and management services. Someone who has been central to guiding ESPA through these evolutions
68 spabusiness.com issue 4 2015
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Michael Harmsworth has risen through the ranks of the family business over the past two decades to become CEO
is Sue’s son Michael Harmsworth, who joined the company on day one and has risen through the ranks to managing director and most recently CEO. Here, he talks about ESPA’s continuing journey, and how the company is tackling some of the industry’s biggest challenges.
Our approach to wellness is to put the guest at the centre then look at what our partners can deliver You recently became CEO of the company. Has your role changed? I was appointed last December after KSL Capital Partners [the US private equity firm that bought a majority stake in Miraval last year] invested in the business in a refinancing exercise. At that point, Sue became chairman and I became CEO, but to be honest it hasn’t made a great deal of difference. I joined ESPA when I was 27, after starting my career in a
management and marketing consultancy. Sue had created the first products and asked if I would help her with some teething problems, so I agreed to give her a hand for six weeks. Six weeks became six months and here we are. Since then, I’ve had every job title going. In the early days, I called myself business development director because everything I did was about trying to develop the business!
What’s the biggest change you’ve seen? The industry has gone through its infancy, through a period of discovery and is now reaching a state of maturity, where the expectations around what spas can achieve are more realistic. At the outset, the world fell in love with spa. Every hotel operator was saying: “We need one of those. We don’t know what it is, but we know we want a shiny one!” Spas now are much more commercial, and investors are looking at them in much more commercial way. Consumer knowledge has also grown dramatically, and consumers are much savvier about what they want to buy.