Couldn’t be more successful
How a Gold Coast business expanded into 17 international markets
In a pristine lab in suburban Gold Coast, Dr Aaron and Alison Atia and their team are creating, testing, producing, packaging and supplying luxury skin care to meet national and international demand for high-quality, Queensland-made products.
Husband and wife team Dr Aaron Atia and Alison Atia established SkinO2 in 2005, to help patients recover from surgery and provide protection from the Australian sun.
The business has since grown to be sold in thousands of clinics across the country as well as into multiple international markets including Vietnam, Morocco, Korea, America and India.
“We wanted to empower people to know how to look after their skin with the best skin health ingredients,” Ms Atia said.
“Originally we were really well established in thousands of clinics across Australia. We've rapidly expanded overseas and have been able to partner with world leading luxury brand distributors across the globe.
“We're in more than 17 countries and rapidly expanding.
“Domestically we're enjoying supporting all our distributors and clinics across Australia, but internationally, that's where we're seeing the huge growth.”
The Australian-made products are favourites among national and international celebrities with the SkinO2 team and customer base helping to shape the businesses’ rapid success.
Ms Atia said the global pandemic gave rise to the demand in online sales, of up to 300%, which also unlocked opportunities in global markets.
Ms Atia said Business Chamber Queensland membership supported the business’ success internationally.
“We joined the State Chamber of Commerce nearly two decades ago, and for us it was really important,” Ms Atia said.
“There are so many reasons why it's so special and valuable to us and made us the brand we are today.
“That can just be from everyday business support, to really keeping up to date with the latest news in the industry and being an advocate and a voice for business to bring important change.
“For us, the chamber is the best in export documentation support, in a real world practical sense. The chamber helps us with the everyday things like export documentation and registration, and also making sure new trade agreements work in country. They're an expert team.
“Sometimes as a business owner you can be quite alone, so it was really important to be part of a professional expert group - extra support that every business really needs.
“We couldn't have done it without the chamber.”
SkinO2 recently established a partnership with a leading luxury retailer in India, allowing the Queensland business to be sold in luxury stores, department stores and malls.
Read more about how the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) allowed SkinO2 to be competitive in the Indian market.
“Things can come up at the last minute and we had expert, practical support. So that really gives you a comfort to know you've got that expert team behind you,” Ms Atia said.
“The chamber has been really an integral part of helping support our business manage change and keep us up to date with the latest news and changes in a really timely way.
“It couldn't be more successful and that was really through the chamber's help.”
