40 Years of business

Anne-Marie de Spa has dedicated a lifetime to the beauty therapy industry and while never one to seek accolades, she is delighted the business established in her parents home in 1964 has been acknowledged.
Jouvence Beauty Institute in Christchurch won Best Spa 2007/08 at the recent NZ Beauty Industry Awards. “It’s wonderful recognition for over 40 years of hard work,” Anne-Marie says. The award has delighted Jouvence clients and staff alike, including Rose Tothill a beauty therapist for 21 years who always provided superior service and is still involved in a training role with new staff at Jouvence. Also Helen Alexander, the receptionist for 17 years whose extremely high standards always ensured the salon ran smoothly and clients were 110% happy. She is still included in all Jouvence events.
The process
But if it hadn’t been for the persuasive powers of her son, Jean-Michel Tallott, who runs the Auckland office of de Spa Cosmetics, and Serena Hansen, who works alongside Anne-Marie in Christchurch on the Sothys brand, Jouvence would not have featured at the awards. “I’m thrilled for Serena and Jean-Michel because it was the two of them who pushed it,” she says.
The process of entering was ‘a mammoth amount of work’ as Serena puts it. The first element to be addressed was updating the Jouvence policy and procedures manual. A more indepth approach resulted in it going from the original 30 pages to 190 pages. Every area of the business was detailed from answering the phone and greeting clients to ordering stock.
The second part of the entry involved a photo gallery to present a visual record of Jouvence’s development. The third and final aspect was a current and future business plan including the likes of client references, examples of stationery and copies of the website. Each part was compiled into a bound book to be presented to the judging panel.
Serena and Jean-Michel worked on the project for around six months but a couple of weeks before entries closed the intensity increased requiring weekends and some late nights to meet the deadline.
It certainly proved worth the effort and Serena and Jean-Michel were thrilled with the successful outcome.
How it all started
Looking back at Jouvence’s growth and development, Anne-Marie has certainly created an outstanding environment for her clients and staff. However, it may never have happened if her original career plan had come to fruition.
Struggling to adapt to life in New Zealand after her Belgian parents moved to Christchurch in 1959 following stints in South Africa and the Belgian Congo, two years later she went back to Belgium with thoughts of training to be a teacher in Paris. But a chance meeting with a beauty therapist trainee swayed her to study for two years at the Belgium division of French beauty school Lise Loriot.
Back in New Zealand by 1964, Anne-Marie set up a clinic in her parents home but within three years moved her business out to the Christchurch Airport’s recreation centre near the American’s Operation Deep Freeze base. It was a canny move as the American’s were much more familiar with beauty treatments.
“I was rather naïve when I came back from Belgium with a trunk full of products and then found that one needed a licence to import, so I made sure to stretch these products out as far as I could,” she remembers. In 1971 she was granted an annual licence of $200 so in order to get as much as possible out of this tiny licence she organised to receive the Swiss products in two phases – oily/water which were mixed and packaged at night when the children were asleep.
Holmwood Road
By 1973, she had found a wonderful old villa in Fendalton’s Holmwood Road and set about developing the business there – operating in both locations until selling the airport clinic. “When I first started I had one room and it was just me,” she recalls. After the airport clinic sold, the therapist from there joined her and Jouvence expanded into a two room clinic. When Anne-Marie’s daughter, Nathalie, was born in 1977 another room was converted into a nursery to allow baby to be with mother for the first nine months.
Today Jouvence has six therapy rooms and employs three full-time and two part-time staff.
You won’t find many treatments using technical equipment offered on the Jouvence menu and it’s always been important to Anne-Marie that therapies reflect her philosophy.
“I always say it’s the ‘Three H’s’ – heart, head and hands. You have to be caring and use your head because everyone’s different. I think there are still a lot of clients who need that nurturing and caring.”
Industry changes
The industry has certainly changed since Anne-Marie pioneered the way forward. One of the main changes she notes is today’s therapists have so much choice when it comes to products. In the early days, therapists had to make do with what was available and learnt to be innovative. But she believes the rewards were greater.
“I do understand the clients today expect to see immediate results. I think the industry’s only going to get bigger and there will be more and more technology as far as equipment and cosmetics, but for an old girl like me, I fear that we are going to lose a lot of the nurturing.”
A passion for beauty therapy
Anne-Marie’s success and longevity in the industry stems from her passion for Jouvence and her 20-years as French brand Sothys New Zealand distributor. But it takes a special personality to be in it for the long haul. “I’ve always been a stickler! When you start something you finished it. My favourite expression is ‘stick to your knitting.’”
There have been many highlights throughout her career. “Memorable was working at night making products so I could have something special for the clients. My aim had never been about making money – it was always to help the clients. I’d love it when they would say they’d had comments, especially if it was from their daughters because they don’t usually compliment their mothers. That was really rewarding! And I enjoy going into Jouvence today and seeing clients who have been loyal for over 40 years and the wonderful thing is, they haven’t really changed that much!”
Anne-Marie adds her loyal staff and Jean-Michel joining the business and creating a success of the Auckland branch has also been vital to her enjoyment of being in business.
“I’ve been really blessed - I’ve had some wonderful staff.” Many of the Beauty Therapists who have worked at Jouvence have gone on to own their own successful salons which is a joy for her to see.
Now working predominantly from the Sothys warehouse that’s been set up next to her home in rural Christchurch, Anne-Marie still feels the pull of Europe. She travels to Belgium every year with her husband of four years, Charles Hall, also a widower, who she first knew when growing up in Africa and hadn’t seen for 30 years.
But no matter where she is, beauty therapy will always be in her blood.