Irish Australian Business Awards Peoples Choice 2017

In 2010, I took a huge risk on introduced a whole new concept known as Salt Therapy to Australia after seeing the effects the therapy had on my own father. Prior to starting salt therapy back in Ireland, my father would have regular asthma attacks, which dramatically affected his health, mental health and our family’s relationship as there was no solution in sight.

My father commenced salt therapy in 2009 and has been attack free ever since. Having experienced my father having numerous asthma attacks, and witnessing first-hand what it is like to have a loved one gasp for air while we wait for an ambulance, my life purpose changed as no one should have to suffer like this.

Salt therapy is a natural complementary therapy that relieves symptoms of both respiratory and skin conditions. Sufferers simply sit in a room where they breathe minute dry salt particles deep into their lungs. I identified that the therapy was not yet available in Australia, so I took prompt action to secure rights to machinery and sourcing required suppliers.

I could not wait to get the doors open as I expected warm embraces from main stream medical and the associated foundations. I expected clients to flock to Salts of the Earth from all over Australia. This turned out not to be the case. I encountered huge challenges and I was naive to think that this would explode overnight. At the end of the day, I was creating a new industry that had no awareness and many challenges.

In the first month of trade, I had 9 appointments from 4 clients. Now fast forward to the present day where Salts of the Earth is now a franchise network with 22 centres open and 4 more to open before Christmas. We have serviced 63,000+ clients and are currently welcoming 2,000+ new clients per month, while dealing with 20,000+ appointments per month.

We have finally solidified our position, establishing our industry so our journey now starts here.