Published 15 June 2018
Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News Source
Development Bank partnering with Renu Medi Spa in promoting medical tourism
Basseterre, St. Kitts, June 15, 2018 (DBSKN) — Local dermatologist Dr Debbie-Joy Huggins has a mission and vision she feels should be the guiding principle for all the hard working people in the Federation and the visitors who come to our shores. Her simple counsel is that after you would have worked hard, the body needs to rejuvenate, recharge and refresh.
A dermatologist since 2007, the Wales (UK) and USA trained Dr Huggins who runs a successful practice at Bird Rock Commercial Site in East Basseterre has maintained that since returning home from her studies she wanted to do not just traditional dermatology.
“I wanted to do cosmetics too since nobody was doing it here because that is the main area I am interested in,” observed Dr Huggins. She looked at having and running a medi-spa as a spa would offer more. The result of her vision was the opening, in November last year, of Renu Medi Spa located in the bustling Port Zante, where locals and tourists mingle as they seek to rejuvenate, recharge and refresh their bodies.
“I realised spas are doing more and more, as it is not just the nails and your face,” noted Dr Huggins. “They are doing more with skin care, and that is one of the reasons that I have the name (of the spa) as ‘Renu’ – it is a ‘new you’, renewed, recharged, rejuvenated.”
Dr Huggins observed that dermatology is very personal because it is something that affects the quality of life of the patient, how they feel about their appearance and themselves, because their exterior is the first impression. That the skin is the first impression that people get of a person, there is then always the need to put out the best impression.
“So Renu is about a better you,” observed Dr Huggins. “We are not trying to create a different person. It is just a better you. I thought about doing it at my office, but I just couldn’t. A lot of people don’t associate cosmetics with traditional medicine. And so even though I was doing the same peels and everything at my office, it was not the same feel and experience as if you are doing it in a spa setting.”
She did her research and felt that as much as local people would benefit, she also knew that there is a great interest in medical tourism and therefore looked at Port Zante which is a duty free zone that is visited by cruise passengers. She however found out that setting up a medi-spa is an expensive business and her many years of planning were almost brought down to naught when she approached a number of commercial financial institutions which flatly told her that they do not give loans for new businesses.
She would have heard about the Fresh Start Programme that offered business loans to small-to-medium scale entrepreneurs at attractive rates that was being administered by the Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis. When she read about it, she decided to go to the bank to find out more about it. There she met and spoke to Mrs Kimmoy O’Loughlin-Burroughs, Assistant Manager, Business Support Unit.
“She (Mrs O’Loughlin-Burroughs) was really open, and informative and I left the bank feeling like this could happen,” remarked Dr Huggins. “Okay, Renu could eventually happen because she just had a lot of information – she made it sound possible. Everybody else was giving me the impossible, oh, what is a medi-spa?”
Added Dr Huggins when she talked to Development Bank’s Business Support Officer in the Business Support Unit, Mr Manasses Huggins (no relation to her), who had visited Renu Medi Spa recently: “Mrs O’Loughlin-Burroughs was like, ‘that is a good idea because there is none here’. She basically outlined exactly how I should do it (business plan) up and all the different categories – all that I need to put in it.”
Dr Huggins, who has captioned her experience with the bank as ‘Renu Medi Spa and Development Bank: When Finesse and Financial Services Meet’ had this to say: “I can honestly say that without Development Bank, I do not think Renu would be here, because in terms of the capital investment, I just wasn’t getting it and the equipment is very expensive.”
Renu Medi Spa is now a busy operation with four employees.
“We get tourists from the hotels and we do get cruise passengers but I want the main base of my business to be locals,” said Dr Huggins. “It (coming to a spa) is not a luxury; you work hard and you should be able to treat yourself nicely, and so you come and you get a massage. We think of you holistically basically. So if your lifestyle is in the sun a lot we encourage people to come and get the body scrubs because it is good for exfoliation and skin rejuvenation.”
According to Renu Medi Spa’s Operations Manager, Ms Davida Huggins, in some of the procedures one has to do a consultation first. Along with her three colleagues they are able to handle most of the work, but where it needs a dermatologist, that is when the services of Dr Debbie-Joy Huggins come into play.
Services offered include warm bamboo massage, hot stone massage, Swedish massage, manicure, body wraps, chemical peels, facials, body scrubs, laser hair removal, lipo-sculpting, dermabrasion, teeth whitening, eyebrow microblading and shading, reflexology, acupuncture, body waxing, facial threading, eyelash extensions, and tattoo removing among others.
Ms Davida Huggins observed that many people now appreciate the fact that services offered at a medi-spa are not a luxury and that being the case they received many persons who came in to give a treat to mothers on Mother’s Day. They at Renu Medi Spa are looking forward to having the same courtesies being extended to fathers on this coming Father’s Day.
ENDS
Pix captions:
1: Dr Debbie-Joy Huggins with Mr Manasses Huggins of the Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis.
2: Renu Medi Spa’s Operations Manager Ms Davida Huggins demonstrating how eyebrow microblading is done.
3: Spa Technician Ms Carolina Jimenez working on a regular client, Mr Calvin Nathaniel Nicholls (CNN).
4: Renu Medi Spa’s Operations Manager Ms Davida Huggins (left) with Spa Therapist Ms Elrona Williams.
