Mitchell Albert remembers the months before the pandemic quite clearly. The chemist and former Harvard professor was on track toward taking his local skin care line to global heights. Nearly two years after becoming incorporated, Albert, founder of Renew Health, was in an ideal place as a start-up business owner. He had a loyal, growing base of customers throughout Thunder Bay and managed to secure contracts to have his products sold in a number of spas, hotels and salons in Canada and around the world.
Then, as COVID-19 rates climbed, shuttering people into their homes and tearing through supply chains, Albert watched those plans get quashed overnight.
“We didn’t really have a proper launch,” he says. “A lot of things were happening and ready to be rolled out. New ventures, everything that was built just got demolished. It really hit us.”
At Renew Health, the past year and a half has been a period of adapting and riding out the waves of the pandemic toward softer shores. The business implemented a new online marketing and social media strategy as it transitioned to an e-commerce model. In recent weeks and months, Albert says sales have started to pick back up again.
“It’s a whole new world online and there’s always new tricks, new schemes and new campaigns. You always need to be getting better and better,” he says of the process.
Albert founded Renew Health after mixing up skincare concoctions for himself nearly four years ago. He had turned 50 and wanted to reduce the fine lines he was seeing around his face, but thought he could figure out a recipe of his own that was more effective. His creation eventually received approval from several female friends who sampled it and the business was born.
Renew Health is grounded in science, offering a one-stop shop for anti-aging skin care, without the additives and hefty price tag of many mainstream brands. Currently, there are two serums, a day cream and a night cream as part of the company’s line.
And while all the work around operational changes has helped bring it back on a path toward expansion, Albert says the community of Thunder Bay has also played an important role.
“We are lucky to be in a city where the people have been so loyal and supportive,” he says. “It’s really been these customers who have carried us through this.”
Ultimately, he’s optimistic for the future and feeling like all the right pieces are in place. After all, if he can make his inaugural years through a public health crisis, it’s likely he’ll be able to survive any curveball that comes at him next.
