For the past 17 years, Greenwich Medical Spa (GMS) has offered a full suite of nonsurgical facial treatments, medical-grade facials, injectables, body contouring treatments, laser hair removal and an acne clinic that claims a 90% success rate within three-to-four months. Last month, GMS announced its acquisition of MedSpa1064 in Glastonbury for an undisclosed sum.
For GMS”™ founder and CEO Marria Pooya, the acquisition comes five years after her initial effort to expand the business.
“We opened our doors in 2005 with one location ”” and we were on top of a Boston Market in a shopping center in Old Greenwich,” Pooya recalled. “And then about nine years after that, we moved our location to Riverside Commons and doubled our size. And our business really grew from there ”” it went up by 25%. And then I felt that, ”˜Okay, let me see if I could replicate what I had in another location ”” I may have a model.”
Pooya”™s 2017 opening of a second location in Westport “just blew our projections and did really, really well in the Westport market.” She pointed GMS across the New York border with a third location in Scarsdale, adding that operation “blew my expectations, so I knew that I had a model that we could replicate into other locations as well.”
Pooya”™s expansion plan was temporarily halted by the Covid-19 pandemic, but in October 2020 she was confident enough to open a Ridgefield location. The acquisition of MedSpa1064 is the first for the company and it brings the GMS brand into another part of Connecticut.
“Our goal is to grow organically and through acquisitions and to do through clusters in Connecticut and other areas that we want to be in,” she said, adding she has a letter of intent for the purchase of another existing business in Hartford County.
“If you could find a practice that shares the same core values and they have the same culture as you do and they”™re already running in the locations that you want to be in, then it makes more sense to acquire that business versus doing at a startup and building from our ground up,” she said. “Also, you don”™t need to compete with those other sources that are already there. It”™s going to be easier for us to put our brand name in there and really take it to the next level.”
Pooya is also considering potential acquisitions in New Jersey, and she is eager to expand her Westchester presence beyond her single Scarsdale location.
“I”™ve been talking to a few owners as well in that area, but I”™m also looking for the right location to pop up if we can find a good acquisition to expand in the Westchester market,” she said. “Our goal, like our business model, is to create little clusters within that area and get ourselves involved in the community and just be part of that county that we”™re going to be in.”
Pooya defined her average client as a 45-year-old woman “who makes about $150,000 ”” she”™s a working woman, a mom and she wants to look good and wants to feel good. She”™s very active in the community and is also active with the social media where she likes to talk about the procedure that she undergoes.”
While Pooya is keeping track on the tumultuous nature of today”™s economy, she is not concerned that the current inflationary environment and the debate over whether a recession is here or coming soon.
“It all depends on the areas that your demographics are located,” she explained. “We”™re in high-end lucrative markets, so I don”™t see a huge impact. I feel like the household incomes are high and people still have funds to spend on looking good. During the Great Depression, lipstick sales went through the roof because people wanted to just feel good. And I think the same thing happens today ”” once women come into our store and get our services done, that makes them feel good about themselves. So, they will find the funds to do that.”
