Travertine Spa owner looks to make bigger mark in body-care market
During these ugly economic times, selling beauty products takes a little extra sweat, maybe a little more road time.
For Terry Carter, owner of La Palma-based Travertine Spa Inc., the quest for the next big sale took him to Dubai last November.
Travertine Spa peddles body-care products and unisex yoga and Pilates apparel to first-class hotels, spas and all “who believe in treating themselves well,” Carter said. Where better to look than the oil-rich Middle Eastern emirate, which is on a resort-building binge.
Carter didn’t come home with signed deals, but he still thought the trip was worthwhile.
“A lot of the spas there do not do retail yet,” the 38-year-old entrepreneur said. “It will take another year or two for that market to develop, but if I can be there from the beginning, I can become a brand of choice. I regarded it as homework.”
Carter is trying to expand sales of Moroccan Tangerine Hand Soap and other products at a time when many Americans are cutting out luxuries because of the weak economy, record fuel prices and plummeting home values.
