Thea Green – Nailing Down Success

“I should have had my nails done,” smiles Thea Green, pushing her perfectly manicured red nails under the table. When I insist they look faultless, she laughs: “These are over three weeks old. I suppose they’re proof that our three-week manicure works. But I’m due to have them done. I’ve just been so… busy.”

This, from the 33-year-old founder of Nails Inc, is an understatement. Not only is she ten years into running a business which now boasts 50 nail bars across the UK and Ireland, and 400 employees, she’s also clinched her first international distribution deal in Hong Kong, is in talks with South Africa and Australia, has just launched Get Lashed, the diffusion brand for women looking for false eye lashes, and is one month away from going on maternity leave. For her third child.

How has she even time to think about nails? Well, when she’s not with her family, nails are always on her mind. Not her own, but other people’s, and what they might like for them.

She’s either considering the latest colours from the catwalks or consumer trends, collaborating with designers like Luella and Georgina Goodman, creating creams and treatment packs that people can take home, or charms to adorn her limited edition collections. In fact, it’s her emphasis on new varieties and vibrancy that has helped Nails Inc stay at the forefront of the beauty industry for so long.

Founded in 1999, Green, who hails from Wirral near Liverpool, was initially inspired during a fashion shoot in New York. Just 23, and working as assistant fashion editor for Tatler, she was astounded by American women’s grooming and intrigued by the popularity of their nail bars which were fast and affordable.

“We hadn’t thought about the fact that people had wet nails. Or that it’s actually not that nice to mix nail polish smell with sandwiches!”

After discussing the idea with her Tatler colleague Marie Therese, they raised investment and launched Nails Inc in the UK. Initially, their USP was speedy, 15-minute manicures for a bargain price. They stormed the market, becoming wildly popular with cash rich, time poor women.

As time went on, and Marie Therese opted out of the business to move to the US with her family, Green began expanding. She upped the variety of nail polishes and treatments and increased the number of locations in which to offer their services.

In 2000, she introduced Nails Inc bars to department stores, the following year, they introduced the three-week manicure, a revolutionary concept using organic gel. In 2003, they launched their training academy for beauty therapists in London, two years later came the luxury ‘champagne nail bar’, and their business hasn’t stopped growing since.

Not even in a recession. Their sales figures during the financial crisis confirmed that women saw having their nails done as an affordable treat. And it’s hardly surprising why when you consider it’s a product that suits all shapes, sizes and ages, is a fast and affordable way to look groomed, and can add fashion flair to an outfit when new clothes aren’t an option.

Even today, it’s a unique business, not least for its growth and continued success. But ten years ago, being unique also had its downsides. There was no one in the market who they could base their business model on, which meant a lot of trial, and a lot of errors.

Serving food in the nail bars was one such one. “That was a complete disaster,” giggles Green. “I remember standing in South Molton Street and going ‘What are we doing?’ We hadn’t thought about the fact that people had wet nails! And about how it’s not all that… nice… to have nail polish smell mixed with sandwiches!”

There were also the DKNY uniforms early on that inevitably got stained with nail polish. “How unrealistic is it for people to be wearing those sorts of clothes and dealing with nail varnish acetone! I don’t think we really understood we were a chemical business back then, we thought we were a beauty business.”

There was also the big mistake of falling in love with her own brand. “That was dangerous,” she admits, explaining that a lot of money was spent on branding, which they then wanted to put everywhere until they realised how much it all cost.

Looking back on their mistakes and laughing hard about them is part of Green and her company’s charm. While they take their customers, service and treatments very seriously, they’re game for a laugh and unafraid of taking some risks.

“The girls wanted yellow nail polish and I was like ‘You are going to be the only four people in the world who are going to wear it!’ We sold out in 24 hours”

Like when they sold yellow nail polish last summer. “I was trying to play it safe,” Green remembers. “All the girls wanted it and I was like ‘You are going to be the only four people in the world who are going to wear it!’ But we did it and sold out of it in our shops and on our website within 24 hours. It was a huge customer hit.”

Green was similarly unsure about Get Lashed initially. Three years ago, after vast amounts of research into Nails Inc expansion, they concluded it wouldn’t work. It even led Green to comment in The Times in 2006: “A lot of our competitors do add on beauty services and I think it is greed. We are just nails and everything to do with nails.”

She laughs hard about that comment coming back to bite her these days. “I think it’s funny that we said it! We’d researched madly and decided it was the worst idea back then. This time, we just jumped right in and it’s been a big success.

“We were being risk-averse two years ago,” she admits, “and it was a bad decision. I love a risk, I still do. I’d be annoyed with myself if we were being really sensible and safe.” So too, you get the feeling, would her customers.

For more information, visit www.nailsinc.com

By Barbara Walshe