Interview
Mark Hennebry Ensana, Europe’s largest health spa operator, has made its UK debut with the Buxton Crescent hotel – a landmark development that’s been 15 years in the making. The group chair talks to Katie Barnes about the milestone project and strategies for handling business during coronavirus hen it comes to new openings, few have been so eagerly anticipated or as significant as the Buxton Crescent hotel in the UK. The striking Georgian building has been extensively refurbished following a £70m (US$90.8m. €77.6m), 15-year project and at the very heart of it is a spa which taps into the famous local mineral waters. It’s a milestone development for operator Ensana, Europe’s biggest health spa chain, marking its inaugural venture in the UK and enabling it to create something from the ground up for the first time in two decades. It’s also equally important to Buxton, one of only a handful of historic English spa towns which serves as a gateway to the beautiful Peak District National Park, as it looks to revive its wellness traditions and become a key tourist destination once more. Behind this there’s also the intriguing success story of Ensana, by far the largest operator of thermal/mineral hotel spas in Europe. It manages 26 properties across the continent which combine natural healing resources, medical expertise and integrative health. Spa Business caught up with Ensana chair Mark Hennebry, just five days after the Buxton opening to hear more.
Brand essence
In the business of spa: Hennebry says Ensana’s spas deliver 3 million treatments a year
60 spabusiness.com issue 4 2020
The majority of Ensana’s hotels are located in traditional spa towns in central and eastern Europe such as Budapest in Hungary, Marienbad in the Czech Republic and Piest’any in Slovakia. Yet despite this heritage, Ensana, the name of which derives from the Latin words for energy and health, only launched in September 2019. The brand came to fruition after Danubius Hotels Group, the original