Beautiful Drive
July 13, 2004 - A construction management graduate by training,
Ponz Goo now runs successful beauty group Haach Holdings.
CLAD from head to toe in designer brands, Ms Ponz Goo looks more
like a lady of leisure than a hard-nosed businesswoman.
But the 32-year-old CEO of Haach Holdings is the main force driving
the beauty group ahead.
This month marks the opening of a 6,000 sq ft Haach spa at
Millennium & Copthorne’s M Hotel.
It is Haach’s first partnership with a hotel as an in-house spa
management operator.
With this deal, Haach now has seven outlets employing 100
people.
By the year end, Haach will also start two maternity spas for women
in various stages of pregnancy: one in Hyderabad, in south India,
and another at Paragon in a joint venture with medical group
Pacific HealthCare Holdings.
Haach’s turnover last year was $7 million, said Ms Goo, and she is
targeting $10 million this year.
Quite impressive for what started as a family business in Toa Payoh
in 1997.
Ms Goo’s father, who owns a grocery supply and distribution company
provided the $200,000 capital for the first Haach Face, Skin and
Body Care outlet.
The name Haach, like the name Ponz, does not have a special
meaning.
Ms Goo, who is single, said: “My dad is a traditional man who
believes in unity. It was his dream to see all his children work
together.”
Her four siblings also work at Haach.
A construction management graduate of the Royal Melbourne Institute
of Technology, Ms Goo began her career in 1996 as a quantity
surveyor.
She said: “I like being an entrepreneur because I don’t like rules
and having to answer to people. But my construction background
comes in very useful when deciding shop layout.”
In response to a suggestion that family businesses are usually not
as “enterprising” as independent start-ups, she said: ”Although
Haach is a family business, I wouldn’t say I am not entrepreneurial
because I strategised, built up the customer base and completed a
professional beauty certification.
“I worked my way up step my step from trainee consultant to CEO. I
proved to the management that what I did was rewarding for the
company, so they gave me more authority.”
Her effort was recognized when she won the Entrepreneur of the Year
award last year. She also made it to Singapore Tatler magazine’s
Society Top 300 List.
Haach may be making women slim and beautiful successfully but Ms
Goo attributes her willowy frame – 41kg, 1.60m – to good
genes.
“I love fine dining, cream-based pasta and desserts. I have high
metabolism. I also like shopping.”
In her customized closet in her family bungalow in the Serangoon
area, she has more Chanel and Louis Vuitton items than she can keep
track of.
Proof that the hardworking CEO has a soft, feminine side, too.
