Skin care giant Dermalogica backs Brissie start-up Collagen HQ
After a tough few years, local founder Brooke Perkins is now hoping to expand her Collagen HQ clinics around the country.
Business
Don't miss out on the headlines from Business. Followed categories will be added to My News.
It’s not often the boss of a billion-dollar skin care giant jets in for a meeting with a small Brisbane company.
But that was what happened to Collagen HQ founder Brooke Perkins recently as she prepared to expand her network of LED light therapy clinics around the country.
Aurelian Lis, the chief executive of California-based Dermalogica, made the whistle-stop to meet Perkins, sealing a deal to supply his company’s range of skin care products to Collagen HQ clinics.
It’s been a tough couple of years for Perkins, a former nurse, who opened her first clinic in Noosa weeks before the onslaught of Covid-19 in early 2020, but the visit by Lis marked a turning point. Collagen HQ is set to open a flagship clinic in Brisbane’s swish James St precinct in the coming months.
“It has been a very difficult period for all my staff,” says Perkins., who has ambitions to open clinics in Sydney, Melbourne, the Gold Coast and New Zealand over the next year. ”The whole idea was to get through Covid and not be forced to close.”
Perkins says the main selling point of Collagen HQ is LED light therapy, a revolutionary treatment that she says can stimulate collagen in skin, relax muscles, heal scars and reduce body inflammation. In the past, Navy SEALs have used LED light therapy to help heal wounds
Collagen uses repurposed solarium beds, to deliver a blend of red, blue and white LED light therapy and provide “a totally non-invasive therapy.”
Perkins says the white light penetrates deep into the skin targeting inflammation, the blue light kills bacteria and calms acne while red light stimulates the natural cellular processes that tighten the skin, treats injuries, reduces pain, relaxes muscles and increases blood circulation.
Perkins says the growth of non-invasive wellness treatments such as LED light therapy reflected the fact people of all ages wanted to “look and feel better.”
LED lights does not contain UV rays, which can be harmful to the skin and is therefore suitable for regular use Unlike chemical peels or laser therapy, LED light therapy does not cause burns.
The billion dollar non-surgical beauty treatment industry in Australia is being driven not only by an increasingly affluent ageing generation, but younger clients whose lives are framed by the most attractive selfie that can be posted on Instagram or Facebook.
According to IBISWorld, women and men aged 35 to 54 are the largest clients for both surgical and non-surgical beauty treatments offered by a sector that grew at an annual rate of more than 7 per cent over the past five years.
Lis told City Beat that Collagen HQ reflected a move by the wellness and beauty sector to a more sophisticated service model. “The days of what we used to call ‘steam and cream’ has gone,” says Lis. “It is now about more advanced therapies.”
But Lis says that despite the introduction of new machines and modern therapies there was no replacement for the human touch.
Founded in 1986, Dermalogica trains more than 75,000 professional skin therapists and supplies skin care products to upmarket department stores and spas around the world.
NEW CLUBS BOSS
With more than 25 years in and around the hospitality industry, Craig Harley has been appointed the new chief executive of Clubs Queensland.
Harley has spent almost the past eight years as QLD & NT State Manager for IGT - one of the world’s leading designer, manufacturer and supplier of pokie machines, services and gaming systems. He has also had roles with Knight Frank Australia, CBRE and Aristocrat Technologies.
Clubs Queensland president Gavin Lyons says Harley has an in-depth knowledge of the gaming industry.
“Craig also has an incredible dedication to the community, which is exemplified through his involvement with the charity, Smart Pups Assistance Dogs for Special Needs Kids,” Lyons says. Harley commences in the role on June 20 and acting CEO Dan Nipperess will step back into his role of general manager.
Harley replaces Rugby league legend Kelly Egan who hung up his boots after helping the sector survive some of the toughest trading conditions in living memory. Egan held the chief executive role since 2020.
MILK SHAKEUP
Former Master Builders Queensland boss Grant Galvin is stepping into the role of chief operating officer at Maleny Dairies.
Galvin, who spent almost a decade at Master Builders, will join the iconic Sunshine Coast business next month tasked with supporting its continued growth.
It is the second big hire for the dairy after the appointment of Queensland Chamber of Commerce and Industry boss Stephen Tait as chief executive late last year.
The Hopper clan have been dairy farming on the rich land around Maleny since the 1940s but a restructure two decades ago set them up as one of the most successful locally owned dairy brands in the country.
The company has been a rare bright spot in the industry that has suffered an exodus of farmers in the past 20 years. At last count the number of dairy farmers in Queensland has slipped below 300 from 1545 20 years ago as foreign owned processors continue to import milk from Victoria. It’s important to buy local!
Galvin and Tait are both former employees of News Corp Australia, which publishes The Courier-Mail.
ELECTRIC SPIN
A Queensland tech start-up is pioneering the ‘shared mobility’ concept in Australia by enabling hotel guests to take a spin in a brand new electric vehicle.
Gold Coast company Outbound has just installed its first EV - a Tesla Model 3 - at Mantra at Sharks at Southport and it is now considered one of the hotel’s amenities - just like its gym, bar or concierge.
The car can be booked by guests using the Outbound app, and is parked on site at Mantra at Sharks, saving the hassle of finding a car rental outlet.
“This is a really exciting development for the Australian tourism industry,” Outbound chief executive Luke Rust, says.
“The app is really easy to use - guests just sign up, reserve the car and unlock it using their phone. It’s really handy for anyone wanting to go for a day trip, say to the theme parks or out to hinterland.”
Shared mobility, as a concept, is considered to be the future of transport with most private vehicles sitting idle 96 per cent of the time.
The new EV at Mantra at Sharks allows tourists to travel to the Gold Coast without driving their own cars and still have the convenience of a personal vehicle.
Originally published as Skin care giant Dermalogica backs Brissie start-up Collagen HQ
Start-ups rising to the green challenge, says KPMG
Start-ups here are increasingly choosing to tackle issues of climate change and green technology, KPMG Australia chief Andrew Yates says.
Firms looking to chop costs with wage cuts, lay-offs
Some 20,000 financial services and telecommunications roles have been shifted overseas as local contractors are given the flick and employers begin to cut costs.