2011 B2C Products & Services EOY: Attila & Boldijarre Koronczay
Congratulations to Attila & Boldijarre Koronczay , president and founding president of Eminence Organic Skin Care Inc. , the 2011 Pacific Region Entrepreneurs of the Year in Business-to-Consumer Products and Services.
It’s not very often that a childhood battle with leukemia can be cited as the impetus for a business. Not only did Boldijarre Koronczay’s fight with cancer teach him perseverance; it also inspired a life-long commitment to organic living.
It was that natural, healthy lifestyle that attracted Boldijarre and his older brother Attila to Vancouver from their native Hungary in 1998. However, they soon discovered that their environmentally friendly beauty products business, Eminence Organic Skin Care, was a few steps ahead of the trend in North America. “This green fever is pretty recent,” Boldijarre explains. “People thought that we were like the hippies.” He believes that being early to the green game gave them a strong foothold in the industry, to the point where today, he says, “when you think of organic skin care, the words ‘organic skin care’ and ‘Eminence’ are synonyms.” With over 180 products, the company now employs 50 people in Vancouver and 200 worldwide.
They can thank the stars for part of that success. When celebrities such as Twilight’s Peter Facinelli and A-lister Katherine Heigl showed an interest in Eminence products, Boldijarre personally provided them with VIP facials. And while their unsolicited endorsements have been invaluable, it’s the aestheticians that really make an impact on sales. Boldijarre postulates that with their products in close to 3,000 spas worldwide, success boils down to simple math. According to his calculations, “each spa has five to 10 aestheticians and they will do five to 10 facials a day. So, if you do the math, how many millions of facials have been done with our product? It’s hundreds of millions by now.”
While Boldijarre pampers celebrities and educates his aesthetician sales army, his brother Attila manages the logistics and growth of the company. Boldijarre jokes that they are the perfect team because he is a right-brain thinker while Attila is all left. The brothers also claim they’ve never had a single conflict while building the business. Perhaps the symbiotic relationship is to thank for that, or it could be Bolidjarre’s past brush with cancer. With a boyish chuckle, Attila explains that they are still catching up on the playtime the disease robbed them of in their youth.
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