User:Primorye/Dragonfly Retreats

Dragonfly Retreats are a chain of urban day-spa's originating from Shanghai, China that have subsequently spread to other cities within Greater China and abroad. Dragonfly's motto is "to Relax the World!" and they claim to do this 'one massage at a time.'

The company's retreats offer a range of massage and beauty (nail care, waxing, facials) services to both men and women. The company claims to have the largest market share of foreign customers living in or traveling to Shanghai and Beijing.

History
Dragonfly began with one small shop that opened its doors in February 2003 on Donghu Road in Shanghai, nearby the fashionable Huaihai Road in what used to be the pre-revolutionary French Concession. This busy shopping district with a nearby clothing market and an old hotel (Donghu Hotel) was frequented by foreigners visiting or living in Shanghai and so featured considerable vehicle and pedestrian traffic that could be attracted to the company's logo signage and window displays. Business began modestly and grew steadily until the outbreak of SARS. The young business suffered severely for a few months until the epidemic had passed - and then began to improve rapidly.

In the Autumn of 2003 the company expanded its presence in Shanghai by assuming management of the spa facilities within the Gym. The business initially relied on word of mouth promotion from well-wishers within the community - who spoke highly of its quality of service and ambience of its retreat - to help promote the business. One of these well-wishers eventually joined the company as a partner.

The small shop quickly grew to capacity on evenings and weekends and so in Spring of the following year, Dragonfly opened a second location on a nearby side-street, also in the French Concession, where it expanded the range of services to include a nail salon and subsequently waxing. This retreat called Dragonfly @ Xinle also included a VIP couples suite called The Love Nest.

With two shops open serving clients in a rather large and congested city, Dragonfly was frequently approached by customers who wanted to see the business expand operations closer to their home or office. For quality of life reasons, many expatriates chose to live with their families in the suburbs, far from the city centre. They would commute an hour each way to come into the centre for a 1-2 hour spa treatment. One such customer approached the company and became its firstFranchisee in the Pudong New Area, opening her first retreat in May of 2005.

The years 2005-7 saw a sudden expansion of the business through company-owned, franchising and joint venture shop openings. The company expanded further in Shanghai, but added new retreats in BeijingBeijing as well as in OsloOslo, Norway. The management team expanded to include full-time staff focused on business development, design, training and new shop openings. Because of the rapidly growing need for staff to expand the existing shops and to populate new shops, the company established its Dragonfly Academy in 2006 to train all staff in-house. Just before New Year 2007 the company launched its first shop in a second tier city in Shanghai, in Suzhou.

2008 began strong with the launch of Dragonfly @ Sea spa onboard the ttp://www.yangziexplorer.org/ MS Yangzi Explorer] cruise ship and the first Dragonfly Hideaway spa in a hot-spring resort in Qingdao in the North.

However, the financial impact of the global financial crisis led to many expatriates being returned home and business/tourist travel numbers fall, shrinking business in some of the suburban shop. Consequently the company consolidated operations by closing several shops. 2009 saw business conditions begin to improve with a new franchised shop opening in Hangzhou.

2010 began with the launch of two pilot shops in Shanghai for a new sub-brand specifically targeting the Chinese customer, called Zuqingting. This brand has a similar product mix as Dragonfly but different styling and offers services at a different (lower) price point. In the middle of the year the company launched its first retreat in Hong Kong, the Dragonfly Foot Spa within the Novotel Century Hong Kong hotel. This retreat focuses on foot massage treatments but was followed in December by the launch of a second location which added a range of beauty services.

Timeline
Key milestones in Dragonfly's development.


 * 2003 Feb - Dragonfly Therapeutic Retreat launched 20 Donghu Road
 * 2003 Sep - Dragonfly assumes management of Gym's Spa Services
 * 2004 May - Flagship retreat launched Xinle Road - features Nailspa and Love Nest
 * 2005 May - First franchised shop opens in suburban Pudong
 * 2006 Feb - First Beijing retreat launched near the Forbidden City
 * 2006 Mar - First international franchise opened in downtown Oslo
 * 2006 Jul - Launched the Dragonfly Academy to train in-house staff
 * 2006 Dec - Opened first retreat in a 2nd tier Chinese city: SuzhouSuzhou
 * 2008 Feb - Second international franchise opened in Dubai
 * 2008 Jun - RnR Pilot shop launched in Shanghai
 * 2008 Jul - Dragonfly @ Sea spa launched aboard the MS Yangzi Explorer
 * 2008 Oct - Dragonfly Hideaway spa opened in QingdaoQingdao
 * 2009 Jul - Opened first Dragonfly retreat in HangzhouHangzhou
 * 2010 Jan - ZuQingTing sub-brand launched in Shanghai for Chinese market (rebranded as DF by Dragonfly Jan 2011)
 * 2010 Jul - Dragonfly Foot Spa launched in the Novotel Century Hong Kong hotel

Georgie Yam
Founder Georgie Yam (任佐治) is an entrepreneur born in Hong Kong, educated in London at Vidal Sassoon, who then moved to Singapore where he established his first business, The Salon Georgie Yam in Wheelock Place on Orchard Road. Georgie developed a reputation as a celebrity hairstylist and after winning several industry awards including Master of the Craft, published a book entitled Beautiful Hair in 1997.

Jeannie Sim

http://www.theretreat.com.sg/

Singapore Marriott Hotel

As a serial entrepreneurEntrepreneur, Georgie has been asked to speak at academic conferences on topics related to entrepreneurship and his experience building a retail brand in China.

The Brand
has become popular with expatriates

Sub-Brands
Dragonfly experiments with variations on its core theme in different markets, different sized shops, or targeting different customer segments.
 * Dragonfly Petite
 * Dragonfly Cabin
 * Dragonfly Hideaway
 * Dragonfly @ Sea
 * DF by Dragonfly
 * RnR (discontinued)
 * Zuqingting (re-branded as DF by Dragonfly)

Dragonfly Tattoo
A curious development...

Business Cases
In recent years two business cases have been written about Dragonfly by Professor Gilbert Wong of the The Asia Case Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong:


 * Dragonfly Therapeutic Retreat: Creating an Affordable Indulgence (2009)


 * Dragonfly Therapeutic Retreats: Crafting a Winning Proposition (2010)