It was clearly going to be a huge industry. Philip McGlade was confident of that when he started planning six years ago. 

He had to be because the amount of capital expenditure needed was vast.

McGlade had seen the statistic that one in six couples would struggle to conceive, had heard from his friends about the destructive cost of IVF and knew that half of Irish IVF cycles were happening overseas as a result. 

The argument for a new kind of fertility clinic in Ireland was convincing. 

At 32.5 years, Ireland has the oldest average age for mothers in the European Union and it is an unfortunate fact of biology that it becomes harder for women to conceive naturally as they age. 

Between 5,000-6,000 IVF cycles happen in Ireland each year, but that is only half of the true size of the market. A further 5,000 Irish IVF cycles happen abroad every year and typically the main driver for people to travel is the prohibitive cost domestically. 

Ireland is one of a small number of countries in the developed world not to offer free fertility care so people are currently forced to use private clinics, where one cycle of IVF can cost anywhere between €5,000- €8,000. Factoring in LGBTQ+ couples and individuals, and the demand for fertility treatment is growing. 

Fertility is big business, with the global fertility services industry expected to rise to $41 billion by 2026, according to Statista, the German data company. 

A 2018 report by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority estimated the UK fertility market to be €375 million a year. In the US, venture capital funding is flowing at an unprecedented rate into an ever increasing array of fertility entrepreneurs, who are zealous in their attempts to make having a baby a hyper financial transaction, one you begin paying and planning for years in advance.

What made it even more enticing to McGlade, who built Thérapie Medical Group from one beauty clinic on Molesworth Street to the largest provider of aesthetic treatments in Ireland and the UK, were the vertiginous barriers to entry: the infrastructure demands, the regulation, the massive capital outlay and the shortage of staff with expertise.

Speaking to The Currency from Thérapie’s first fertility clinic in Carrickmines Business Park, which opened last August, McGlade’s vision of being a disruptor in the sector, dominated by established players, becomes clear.

In the short-term, the group is planning to triple the IVF market in Ireland. Long-term, the objective is to “educate and empower” women to take control of their fertility through testing and egg-freezing in their twenties, he says. 

McGlade, who was handed the reins of Thérapie by his father, Paul McGlade in 2009, has financed the €10 million fertility venture from other companies in the group, which were cash-rich, and through bank debt. 

According to McGlade, the reason the group might be in a position to fulfil its promise of becoming the biggest fertility provider in the UK and Ireland is the power of the Thérapie brand, the infrastructure it already has in place and the 250,000 clients with disposable income it already serves. 

The Carrickmines premises, which is fitted out in white marble and minimalist design, will be the central hub for the group’s fertility venture, but the group is on track to open a satellite clinic in Dundalk in two months and to be in Galway by the end of the year. 

Thérapie has 23 clinics across Ireland and McGlade is confident these can all become satellite fertility clinics, where consultations and testing can take place. 

“The Thérapie brand is very strong in Ireland, we have a big cohort of female patients. so I think we can leverage off our Thérapie clinics and educate that audience,” McGlade tells me

Opportunities in crisis

The most recent accounts filed by Fellerim Ltd, the group’s operating company showed the group had €21.8 million in deferred revenue at the end of 2020; this came from pre-sold aesthetic treatments, which weren’t carried out as a result of the pandemic.

Although the group’s profits took a hammering over Covid, as clinics were closed during public health lockdowns, it used the time to scoop up deals on retail spaces in the UK and buy Skinsmiths, an insolvent London-based chain of ten beauty clinics for £200,000.

“Ireland is a very small country and the UK is on our doorstep with 60 million people. We opened 23 stores in the UK last year, it was a massive capital expenditure but the market conditions were to our advantage,” he said.

It was a familiar play from McGlade, who used the 2008 financial and property crisis to expand the business in Ireland. 

On graduating from Dublin Institute of Technology in 2008, with a degree in International Business and Spanish, he thought a gig in investment banking in London was his future but the jobs market was decimated, and he took his father up on an offer to come into the family business instead.

Paul McGlade, a Belfast-born businessman, is most easily recognised for setting up Champion Sports with Paddy McKillen. The chain was bought by Bernard McNamara, the property developer, in 2006 for £60 million. 

Paul opened the first Thérapie clinic in 2001 and it sat alongside other clinics in his portfolio including The Body Clinic on South William Street and Optilase, which was at one point the largest provider of laser eye surgery in Ireland. 

When his son joined Thérapie it consisted of one clinic offering laser hair removal and some aesthetic procedures. 

“This is preventative healthcare, we want people to be proactive rather than reactive.”

Philip McGlade

After six months working on the marketing side of Thérapie, the then 24-year-old McGlade was given full control of the business. He took over as chief executive, and immediately began expanding to new locations – “offering five star treatments at three star prices.” 

“I was young and naïve and probably didn’t have a clue what I was doing back then,” McGlade said. 

“I had to learn quickly or fail, so that was the advantage. I was forced to learn quickly. I had good people around me and then the business started growing, we expanded outside of Dublin.

“Within six months of me getting involved we started expanding, and we opened in Galway, Cork and Limerick. 

“At the time Ireland was going through a bad recession. So from that perspective, it was a good opportunity, because rents had come down and the economic condition presented a massive opportunity, and we took advantage at the time.”

Thérapie now has almost 60 clinics across Ireland and the UK and employs 700 people. 

“Everything that we do we try to democratise, and make all our services affordable for the mass market, not just for a niche market, without compromising on quality of care,” he said.

Thérapie keeps its retail footprint light, owning just a few properties and renting the rest, allowing it to free up cash and open more locations.

Thérapie is still very much a family-run business, controlled by the four McGlade siblings. Katie McGlade is the chief operating officer of the group, Paul McGlade Jnr runs Pygmalion Bar on South William Street which is also inside the group, and William McGlade is a non-executive director.

Paul McGlade Snr was declared bankrupt in 2017, over debts to the Revenue of more than €4.5 million and has fallen out of the public eye since.

Before Covid, the group made a pre-tax profit of €2 million in 2019. Back at full capacity and with more clinics and pent-up consumer desire in its arsenal, Thérapie is expecting a bumper year, McGlade said.

Building blocks and flat pack rates

The decision to move into fertility was a slow burn, a venture McGlade wanted to embark on for years, but one that required waiting for the right premises and personnel. 

In order to reposition the Thérapie brand as one that could be trusted for both face freezing and egg freezing, McGlade needed experience on board. 

McGlade’s first hire was Grainne Doyne as chief commercial officer. Doyne, who has two decades of experience in fertility care, joined from SIMS, currently the largest IVF provider in Ireland, where she had gained experience in opening up clinics. 

Doyne was then able to cherry pick the team she wanted to recruit and the biggest coup was getting Dr John Kennedy on board. As the former medical director of SIMS, Kennedy is one of the best known fertility doctors in the country. 

IVF is notoriously expensive in Ireland and what can cripple people is the “add-ons” that aren’t included in the basic price. 

“What Thérapie is offering is a flat-pack rate, where more money doesn’t give people more treatment,” Doyne told The Currency. “We are putting the best things in the package, and only the services that we know work.”

The services on offer are condensed to what is scientifically proven to offer patients the best chance of success, and practitioners aren’t incentivised to sell add-on treatments, as is the case in other operations. 

Doyne won’t elaborate on the success rates of the clinic so far, other than to say the results are “exciting”. The first babies born through Thérapie’s IVF programme are due in the early summer. 

Thérapie is also the first fertility clinic in Ireland to offer payment in instalments. Its all-inclusive prices for IVF are €3,995.

“The finance package makes a really big difference to people, we are seeing patients now that I previously never would have seen, because previously money was a massive barrier to entry,” Doyne said.

She added: “A lot of our patients work in open plan offices, so they don’t want to be taking calls from their fertility clinic at work, or some of our patients are teachers, so they can’t have a phone on them at work.

“So we need to understand our audience and think about who we are managing  and they are not available all day to take calls or make them, so through their phone they can send us a message and we’ll respond. It’s little steps but when you put them all together, it makes a really nice process.”

Freezing time

Seven months after opening its doors, McGlade said he has been surprised by how quickly it has taken off. 

“It has been a huge success and it has been better than expected. I always had a confidence that the concept was going to work, I never doubted that but I didn’t think it would take off as quickly as it has,“ he said.

McGlade estimates that by the end of this year, Thérapie will have 20 per cent of the market share for fertility treatment here. 

“Covid has helped, as people weren’t able to travel abroad for treatment, and recruiting Dr Kennedy was a massive coup, he was a very prestigious name in the market and obviously our price point is a draw. We are 40 per cent cheaper than the market,” he said.

But getting market share has never been the driving ambition for McGlade. His focus, and where the return on investment over the coming years will be, is growing the market and bringing new patients and clients into the fertility sector. 

“We think the market is going to grow from 5,000 cycles in Ireland to 15,000-20,000 cycles over the next few years and we are going to attract a new cohort of patients,” McGlade said.

Right now IVF is the most financially lucrative procedure offered by Thérapie, but McGlade sees that changing and is hedging its bets on egg freezing becoming ubiquitous among women in their twenties and thirties with disposable income.

“Long term egg freezing is more lucrative, as we will have recurring revenue streams coming in from monthly storage, it’s a stream we are focused on purely for the long term not the short term basis,” he said.

Oocyte cryopreservation, or egg freezing, is one of the fastest growing treatments in fertility services.

What started in the 1980s as a way to aid women undergoing medical treatment to protect their fertility has gone mainstream in the last decade. 

It has gained something of a glossy sheen over the past decade as Silicon Valley tech companies began offering it as a perk of employment to female employees. Facebook began the trend in 2014, with Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer, being a key advocate. Quickly followed by Apple and Google, and a thousand column inches on whether it was good or bad for feminism. 

According to a 2017 study carried out by the Merrion Fertility Clinic in Dublin and the National Maternity Hospital, 72 per cent of women of child bearing age would consider freezing their eggs to preserve fertility.

Thérapie charges €1,995 for the egg freezing procedure, plus €18 for monthly storage, creating an almost passive income stream, as there is the potential to store thousands of clients eggs onsite. 

There is no regulated limit on the amount of time eggs can be kept in storage for, whereas in the UK it is a decade.

Speaking in financial terms only, the younger a woman starts out on the fertility journey, the more money she will spend on a back up plan she potentially may never need and if she does, will incur more expense on IVF treatment. 

To bring awareness and interest to the procedure, Thérapie Fertility recruited Joanne McNally, the Irish comedian, as a brand ambassador. McNally will document her “egg-freezing journey” for the group and her sizeable online following. This is part of a wider campaign by Thérapie to use influencers to document the process educate potential clients and reach women in their 20s.

Egg-freezing is still a relatively new technology, and because the vast majority of eggs that have undergone the process have not yet been thawed, success rates are hard to pinpoint. 

A 2015 study from Spain concluded that women aged thirty-six and older who freeze ten eggs have less than a thirty per cent chance of having a baby. 

In 2017, 81 per cent of IVF cycles using a patient’s frozen eggs in the UK were unsuccessful. For younger women, the odds are better, but Irish specific statistics don’t exist yet. 

Thérapie is anticipating better results from its clinics, as it is targeting women in their twenties but there is still no guarantee of success.

“Egg freezing is like anything in life, there are no guarantees, but statistically the younger you do it the better your chance of success. A female in her twenties going to have a far higher success rate than someone in their 40s or late 30s,” McGlade said. 

“This is preventative healthcare, we want people to be proactive rather than reactive, empower yourself to make decisions now, because fertility, well there is a clock for everyone. So we want to empower people and educate people.”

Further reading:

Profit and loss: what new financial filings tell us about Thérapie Clinic and Nuritas