A Shropshire beauty expert has secured a £100 million contract to supply products and treatments to be sold in China, creating up to 3,500 jobs.
Deborah Mitchell of Heaven has signed a 10-year distribution deal to supply 2,500 Chinese stores and salons, and included in the deal is the employment of at least one Heaven-trained therapist from the UK in each store.
To help facilitate this, Ms Mitchell began work on a £120,000 refurbishment of her Shifnal salon this week, which will include a full upgrade, and a new training facility, where the 3,500 qualified therapists will spend three months learning all about Heaven treatments and products before heading to the Far East.
Ms Mitchell opened her first store in Taiwan earlier this year, and has since added three more outlets there, as well as signing distribution deals in Japan, Macau, Singapore and Hong Kong, though the China contract is the biggest to date.
Besides the Far East, Heaven has also recently taken on new distributors in Cyprus, Ireland and the Canaries, where officials were so keen to seal distribution rights to the Heaven range that Ms Mitchell and her team were guests of the Canary Islands Government for their stay.
In fact, Ms Mitchell said her treatments and products – of which there are more than 150, all made almost exclusively from organic resources, and developed personally by her - are already boosting tourism on the islands.
“I have had reports that my treatments are so popular on the Canaries that women are reportedly flying to the resorts especially to have Heaven treatments, from countries where they are not currently available, or where there is a waiting list,” she said.
One of her most popular treatments is her Bee Venom Mask, which produces similar anti-aging effects to Botox, but is made from completely natural ingredients, attracting a string of A-list celebrity fans, including Dannii Minogue, and most prominently, the Duchess of Cornwall.
She is now busy interviewing qualified therapists to train and send to the Far East, where they will work on a rotational basis.
“I am currently interviewing qualified therapists who will spend three months at the training school in Shifnal, before then spending a further three months in the Far East,” she explained.
“All my students will need to have reached a certain level before they can train with me and learn everything they need to know about Heaven products and treatments, and I am aiming to take on about 3,500 in total.
“But for those lucky enough to be employed by Heaven, there will be some fabulous opportunities to travel and work overseas, and work in some fantastic facilities in China,” she added.
Work on the Heaven salon on Shifnal is expected to take until mid September to complete, which will include completely gutting the three-storey building. As well as adding the training school, there will also be upgrades for the treatment rooms and spa areas.
“The refurbishment is obviously an extensive project, but it was time to give the salon a new look, and the perfect time, given our plans to set up the training school,” said Ms Mitchell.
“It is a considerable investment, but Shifnal is where Heaven began, and though our brand is now truly global, I still want the salon to be at the hub of what we do, and to truly reflect the quality of what Heaven is all about.”
Ms Mitchell has also recently moved her production base to new premises in Shifnal, and currently employs a further 22 staff there.
Whilst work continues on her salon, Heaven has set up a temporary base within the Blue Florist and Blue Cafe premises across the road.
“I am really grateful for their help, they’ve been so accommodating, and I hope their businesses will also benefit from the extra custom we will bring in with our new-look salon – it’s this wonderful attitude that has ensured we want to invest in Shifnal,” she said.
Heaven already has around 50 outlets in South Africa, 45 in Dubai, and there are plans to move to the US later this year.
Comments