Thursday 9 June 2011

The Story of Marble Hill

'We care about your skin, Naturally' Marble Hill Skin Care was founded by Dr Maria McGee, MB, ChB who had been making hand-crafted, Cold Processed soaps as a hobby for a number of years. Dr McGee had a particular interest in the healing and moisturising properties of some natural plant extracts, essential oils and vitamins because some of her own family suffered from dry skin conditions and a close companion had Seborrheic dermatitis. Dr McGee set about researching the treatments for all types of skin disorders and investigated natural alternatives; she laboriously sourced ingredients from around the world and finally settled on the correct blend whilst also developing a unique processing technique that included natural spring water from her own well in Marble Hill Co, Donegal.

With extensive testing and feedback from her family and friends she developed a soap bar which she originally called Marble Hill Kelp Bar (Renamed Health Scrub Bar) with Shea Butter, Sweet Almond Oil, Glycerine, Olive Oil, Avocado Oil, Sunflower Oil, and Vitamin E being just some of the ingredients. Her naturally crafted Kelp soap bar became ever popular and helped to alleviate many of the skin conditions her circle of friends had been suffering from and incredibly with continued use, completely cleared the symptoms of Seborrheic dermatitis her companion had been suffering from. (Dr McGee is the first to point out that this may not be the case for all sufferers)

Hobby or Business?

She continued developing new soaps and added moisturising creams to her skin care range. In the meantime her customers had grown significantly as ‘word of mouth’ recommendations and praise spread through her home town with the result that she made the decision to turn her hobby into a business. There was an ever increasing demand for her products after being featured in local media. And so it was that Marble Hill was born with the core value of continuing to supply her soaps and creams to customers who told her that they could not do without it.

National Media Takes an Interest

Articles in the Sunday Times newspaper recommending her soap brought Marble Hill Skin Care to a wider audience and with other recommendations from everybody who used her range including praise on Internet blogs and forums. Also because of sales on Ebay, and other outlets production demand became too much for Dr McGee who found herself swamped, trying to balance a full time job with the hectic task of raising a young family. The outcome was that she very reluctantly decided to stop trading although she deliberately kept her business name registered, trademarks in place and intellectual property protected knowing she would start trading again when the time was right.

A New Beginning

Dr Magee who had still been producing her skin care range on a small scale to aid those who needed it decided she was now at a time in her life when she could re-launch Marble Hill Skin Care. This time she decided to run as a fulltime fully functional business that could meet the demands of all its customers on time and be placed to provide the benefits of her range on a worldwide scale. Having learned valuable lessons from her first ‘one woman band’ foray into business, she started appointing a team of professionals who would assist her as CEO in bringing Marble Hill to the masses while fulfilling the company vision of outstanding customer service and remaining true to the purely natural product range that benefited and contributed to the wellbeing of its users.

Management Team Appointed

A team was appointed bringing skills such as Finance, Legal, Production Management, Quality Control, Health & Safety and Customer Relations. This established the Company’s aim to become a leading player in the Health & Beauty market.

Realisation of the Dream
The Marble Hill Company is now focused on building its brand and continuing to develop new 100% natural products whilst always remaining loyal to its original skin care range. The original products are being rebranded to reflect the wide range of uses and benefits that they provide so that they can appeal to a much larger consumer base who as yet don’t know what they are missing out on. As with all businesses it will take time to build but Marble Hill’s management team are confidently projecting that Marble Hill will be a world-wide recognisable name and highly competitive player in the skin care market. CEO Dr Maria McGee said “Marble Hill are now positioned to respond to production demands, excellent customer service, customer driven development and realisation of my dream to bring the benefits of our skin care range to the world”.