While the pandemic has had a devastating impact on the economy and business on a global scale, it has also presented a unique opportunity for emerging businesses to find their feet and put that old adage ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ to the test. For one Irish entrepreneur, it was less about the pivot and more about survival. Peigín Crowley decided to turn a side hustle into a business that would not just pay the bills, but potentially change the way she worked forever.

The Cork-based spa consultant, who counts Adare Manor, Cliff House Hotel, The Merrion and Mount Juliet as clients, faced a grim future when Covid-19 hit and hotels and spas shut their doors to visitors. With uncertainty over the timeline for recovery within the tourism industry, Crowley knew she had to do something, and fast.

Six months previously she had co-founded the Irish Spa Association with Edvard & Pink’s Anita Murray. “We came together voluntarily to set up an industry body so we’d be recognised at government level. At the time it was in response to the skills shortage in our industry and working with spas on insurance to help them treat people with HIV or cancer safely, and we were working at government level with Minister Heather Humphreys building guidelines and establishing a road map with Fáilte Ireland so spas could reopen. It was voluntary work and so purposeful, but at the back of my mind I was on the PUP and was a nervous wreck,” she said.

“In the spa industry we’re touching people all day long, so when Covid hit, our business was on the floor. People were looking at me wondering will we ever get back to business again. And in that moment, I knew I had to pivot. I hate that word, as if pivoting is easy and you just choose right or left, but I knew I had to find a way to diversify and still live in the world that I love. I knew there wouldn’t be new spas being designed because companies that were building hotels were haemorrhaging money, so in May I pitched a wellness brand to Brown Thomas.”

A creative brand strategist at heart, Crowley’s passion lies in spa treatment and product development. She had previously collaborated with partners to deliver high-end retail and professional lines including Well at Cliff for The Cliff Group, MOSS of the ISLES and more recently, Modern Rose for MINK, Dublin.

Four houses of wellbeing

This time, she wanted to create something new and personally meaningful and GROUND was born. Based on artisan aromatherapy, GROUND consists of 21 products under four houses of wellbeing: Codladh for sleep, “the best seller by a mile”, Talamh for grounding and balancing “great for women and hormonal balancing”, Beo, which is uplifting and energising, and Cúram, which is about care for family, children and essential wellness. All products are cruelty-free and made from pure botanical vegan ingredients.

“I knew I had to move into retail, and certainly online. I offered Brown Thomas retail exclusivity and they jumped at it.” Investing her family’s savings and with the support of her Local Enterprise Office, Crowley launched online last November. Since then she has made back much of her initial investment of €80,000.

Building a brand from her family home in Bishopstown is not without its challenges, but the agility it has offered has helped accelerate business development. “I don’t have a factory where I can just call DPD and send out the goods, I need to have all the components ready to go, so the speed of it and the way you can watch appetites change has taught me so much. Brown Thomas would send an influencer in to meet me on counter from their own marketing perspective and to see the instant burst from one influencer who has the right tone of voice and is trusted is fascinating. For instance, I noticed the demand for my sleep oil and went home to make more that night and was back in with it the next morning. That speed and understanding of what I’d done right and what I’d done wrong was amazing.”

Crowley’s knowledge of the industry has guided the creation of her own brand. In 2002, she brought Elemis to Ireland. In 2009 she moved over to Estée Lauder to work on professional houses such as Bumble & Bumble, Darphin and cut her teeth on design with Aveda, before taking a redundancy in 2013. “I started peddling my wares as a consultant and building up on LinkedIn and social.” In 2015 she was invited to pitch for the spa at Adare Manor. “The other people going for it were from London and I remember being conscious of the heritage of the place and understanding that the interior designers, landscapers and architects were all from London. I knew they needed an Irish story in there and I just pegged it on that.” She introduced a customer journey based on the grounds of Adare, “calling treatment rooms after the oak and 400-year old cedar tree on the grounds. We even designed a Codladh salt treatment. So Codladh lived long before GROUND, in my heart and in my belief.”

Self-care and self-preservation

Luxury clients are par for the course in Crowley’s business, but working with Brown Thomas on her own start-up provided a fresh perspective. “For many of us, Brown Thomas is so aspirational, it is the voucher you want for Christmas and yet it is terrifyingly five-star, but when you peel back the curtain and you meet the buyer and she knows you’re a start-up and how to navigate this so that it’ll work for you, the kindness from the PR, marketing, payment terms, everything, I can’t shout about them enough.”

In a year where self-care came to really mean self-preservation, the response to GROUND has been overwhelmingly positive. Crowley believes a back to basics approach is what we are all striving for. “We’re all moving toward more basic plants, natural healing, even putting our feet on the ground, these basic things. In the past when I was jet lagged and came home from India I had a pain in my stomach because I’d been travelling for 24 hours and as soon as I’d get home, even if it was 11 O’Clock at night I’d take my shoes off and put my feet on the grass. My ionisation would connect back to the Earth and I’d earth myself and I’d be home. I know it sounds really basic, but our bodies respond to that. You can go to psychotherapists or go the millionth mile with digital technology but for me, if we can get a grip on what we put in our bodies and how we mind ourselves in each moment and breathe, we can mind ourselves so beautifully.”

While the products quickly find their way onto bathroom shelves across Ireland, Crowley’s other market began to reemerge, prompting interest in her new line. “My new market is waking up now which is hospitality and we’re starting to see dates even though there’s nothing concrete.” In the middle of it all, she was approached by one of the most prestigious hotels in Hong Kong, the Rosewood, to stock her products. She estimates getting the products ready to launch in spas will cost another €30k and Brexit will add to costs in terms of having the products relabelled.

“I really had my head in the sand. I thought by calling them Codladh and Talamh and Beo and Cúram it would be off-putting for anyone in the UK. I was almost locking myself in Ireland and saying ‘be grounded, don’t travel the world, just put bread on the table’, but when these big spas in the UK come calling my ego says go with it.”

While Brown Thomas still retain the retail exclusivity, interest from the spa market is growing. Fota Island in Cork is also on the cards to stock her products. As for investment, Crowley is steadfast in her vision. Despite early approaches, she’s not ready to invite investors. “I’m very lucky I’ve had several mentors in my life. Sue Harmsworth who owned ESPA (which sold for about £100m four years ago). By the time she sold it, I think she owned 14 per cent and I don’t want to misquote her, but anecdotally she told me by the time she sold the company she had grown it exponentially with a view to it being acquired, but in the end it was driving the business and the products to serve a market. She told me that when profit takes over purpose, it loses energy and becomes mechanical. She told me to hold on to my purpose and autonomy as long as I can. She advised there’ll be a moment you’ll be happy to be acquired, but if you can stave off investment and other people’s thoughts and brains and remain in your own lane, in love with your purpose it will serve you so much better in terms of lifestyle and I’ve taken that advice. I’m not out to rule the world or to be bossed by anyone. I want to be in control so I can be at home. I want to be a good mum and I know that sounds really nerdy, but this can’t take over. GROUNDED is home and it has to work with home.

“We’re all going to die someday and without being morbid, we want to have lived lovely lives. While we live longer, we don’t live well for longer. I understand the currency of health now, I think we all do. My purpose is very much aligned to that while also bringing a community together to do the same. It won’t take over the world by any stretch but it’ll be meaningful and it’ll be genuine.”