Accantia, the company behind Simple, which has been expanding at about 20% a year, will next week open the first of its treatment centres in Covent Garden, central London. It has created 26 new cleansing creams and other skincare products.
Geoff Percy, chief executive, plans to build a chain of 25 to 30 spas, giving a new leg to a business that also includes Lil-lets, Britain’s No 2 tampon brand.
Percy said he was keen to build on the well-understood “brand promise” of Simple, a perfume and colour-free range of soaps and toiletries favoured by those with sensitive skin.
He said 70% of British women claimed to have sensitive skin, and for many “there is something quite scary about letting someone use unknown products on your face”. The new Simple products would be sold over the internet as well as through the spa centres, he said.
The Covent Garden centre, in Neal Street, has six treatment rooms. Its therapists will work on customers in sessions lasting between 45 minutes and one-and-a-half hours.
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The beauty treatment and spa market, worth an estimated £1.5 billion, is growing strongly because of increasing affluence and a greater emphasis on looking good.
Accantia used to be part of Smith & Nephew, the FTSE 100 healthcare company, until a £140m management buyout, headed by Percy, in 2000. The company was refinanced three years ago, when Duke Street Capital bought the business for £225m.
The £85m-a-year Simple business has doubled in size over the past five years, helped by product launches that have included sun creams, bath and shower oils and a baby skincare range.
“We’re the fastest-growing volume brand in skincare,” said Percy. “We’ve overtaken Nivea to be the second-largest brand in the UK. Simple is 19% ahead of where it was last year.”
Percy said he had become an enthusiastic believer in developing a business under private-equity ownership. He believes the Simple brand, created in 1960, was “capable of far greater things yet”.
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One possibility was to produce a washing powder, taking on Procter & Gamble and Unilever.