NEW YORK — SkinKlinic’s Fifth Avenue flagship has been sold for an undisclosed amount to Sleek MedSpa of Boca Raton, Fla., a privately owned multimillion-dollar spa company. According to sources, SkinKlinic generates between $3 million and $5 million in sales a year.
The acquisition marks Sleek’s sixth location and entry into Manhattan. Andrew Rudnick, president and chief executive officer of Sleek MedSpa, said he had been eyeing SkinKlinic since its inception in 2001, when the model for a one-stop shop medi-spa was beginning to resonate with consumers. He added that SkinKlinic’s business is still healthy, “but [executives] were looking for a strategic partner in terms of operating the business.”
Kathy Dwyer, the founder and part-owner of SkinKlinic — the Walnut Group is an investor — could not be reached for comment.
Sleek moved its headquarters from Boston to Boca Raton last year when it opened a Sleek MedSpa in the Boca Raton Town Center Mall. The company also operates four MedSpas in Boston. Rudnick said the most attractive piece of the acquisition, aside from its winning location, was its branding.
“[Kathy Dwyer] had done a great job of branding and building a clientele. We saw them as a leader. She did everything the right way,” he said. SkinKlinic has a client base of 50,000 and at one point tallied $5 million in sales a year, according to Rudnick. At one time it was the largest distributor of Botox in New York, he added. He is keeping the 20-plus SkinKlinic product line and plans to take the brand to department stores early next year.
But not everything Dwyer did was profitable. SkinKlinic, which when it opened was considered revolutionary for the medi-spa industry, opened a Greenwich, Conn., location, as well as a Las Vegas unit, which have both since closed.
Rudnick said his next move is to brand Sleek in the New York area and to open six to 12 locations in the next year, in partnership with spas and health facilities, which are ripe for the company’s mini-spa model, he said.
SkinKlinic’s Web site, skinklinic.com, alerts customers to the acquisition and redirects users to Sleek’s Web site. According to the site, the medi-spa offers everything from chemical peels and microdermabrasion to laser removal of spider veins.