From papaya soap to beauty clinics
YSA Skin Care Corp. is now producing three types of soaps and a whole array of cosmetics products and services all under the able stewardship of its founder, Dra. Isabel Lopez-Nazal, a well-known dermatologist here and abroad. She continues to train abroad and applies whatever new technology she learns in her chain of beauty clinics under Clinica Dermatologica (which in 1992 started as a derma clinic treating skin diseases) and Mediscape, a new 200-sq.m. facility with in-house operating rooms and cosmetic dentistry located at T. Morato Avenue, Quezon City.
YSA’s humble beginnings of five staff (including the Nazal children who were required to mix the formulation before going to any social functions) has grown to 500. “YSA is expanding not just the clinics but also the production capacity of its plant in Sta. Rosa, Laguna,” said Robert Gerard Nazal II, president of YSA Skin Care Corp.
The holding company is now called Southeastern Bell Corp. under which are its subsidiaries: Clinica Dermatologica (for the ambulatory clinic services); Mediscape (for the full beauty center with OR and cosmetic dentistry); YSA Skin Care Corp (soaps, lotions and other cosmetics products); Aurora Plus (which distributes the imported machines, products and services like botox and MESO to all the clinics) and PERRC Construction (Robert’s first company which does housing projects in Iloilo).
From just three original clinics—at Julia Vargas in Ortigas, St. Luke’s and the Medical Plaza behind Makati Medical Center—Clinica Dermatologica now has 17 branches, Nazal added.
“Our products and services are so broad but we make sure that we price ourselves competitively so we will not be as expensive as Belo but not as cheap as Luz Facial,” he stressed.
The clinics offer cosmetic surgery, facials, liposuction and other ambulatory surgical services. By contrast, its soon-to-open Mediscape clinic in Morato will have surgeons, dentists and orthodontists, dermatologists and a full-line of beauty products and technologies. The clinics are the natural sales outlets of YSA and Aurora’s growing product lines.
But YSA soaps and lotions also had to penetrate the difficult local distribution system which it tried through the NSA (an acronym for classmates Robert Nazal, Rocky Sun and Elmer Aquitania in the UA&P Applied Business Economics Program) Exchange Corp. NSA had to establish local market linkages particularly in the provinces.
Nazal’s goal for YSA Skin Care is to expand it from its current 22 SKUs (shelf keeping units) to 80 in five years.
By 2008, YSA intends to franchise the business using carts that will sell its skin care products while the clinics will expand in number and reach also through franchising.
The new production plant in Sta. Rosa, Laguna has a capacity of one ton a day, enough to meet local and export requirements (it has been shipping its beauty products to the US and Japan through internet, word of mouth and OFWs and balikbayans) and even toll manufacture for local skin care companies.
In preparation for its global entry, YSA has partnered with global logistics leader, Getz Brothers, to distribute and market its increasing products and services to the world, initially to Dubai by next year, Nazal said.
- Latest
