Daylesford expansion and Ocean Grove Closure
I’ve spent the last 4 weeks mulling over how i was going to announce the decision on why we decided to sell our Ocean Grove salon.
Our first day trade in Ocean Grove was March 20th 2020, and i remember it well.
We were on the edge of the unknown, a nationwide covid lockdown was looming, and we were rearing to go and start new adventures 1.5 hours away from Daylesford.
Kat and I sat in the back room on the first day and enjoyed the new massage basins, as we had cancellation after cancellation for the day, due to clients fearing this deadly virus now on our shores.
Over the last nearly 2 years, we have only ever known our Ocean Grove salon in ‘covid times’, and riding the waves of 7 lockdowns.
The continuous ‘pivoting’ was taking its toll after the 5th lockdown, and re-accessing our direction and energies became the focus in 2022.
I was drawn to let go of a vision i held for our business late last year in Ocean Grove, and felt our time was to wind up at our beautiful beach salon .
The focus was needed back in the Daylesford space, to breathe new opportunities and new directions for our business and team.
The process of handing the reins over to a new owner normally takes some time, but in our case it happened seemingly quickly over the space of a month.
I wasn’t blessed with much time to chat it over with our beautiful Ocean Grove clients, and it was similar to dropping a bomb and breaking their heart in the space of 5 minutes.
Only now after handing the keys over to a new owner on Thursday, am i able to really process it and sit with all the emotions of the last 2 years in the Retreat story.
We have loved every single minute of our beach story, the amazing retreat team that included Zoe, Laura, Maisie, along with other great humans who helped along the way – Beck, Kate and Alannah <3
To the Daylesford team for having a ripper time when i was away at the beach, and always welcoming me back to my ‘home’ Thanks To Kat who was by my side from the start to the very end, to Kirsty and Samantha who all felt the ups and downs of assisting when required to make it all happen.
To all the amazing clients that battled all the covid elements with us, that have now been woven into the fabric and story of the Retreat at the beach…
To the girls at Kalo who we took over from, and to Erin & the team at Artistry in Hair that are now the brand new lucky owners we chose to pass the torch onto!
Our Daylesford salon is getting a massive upgrade and will be growing in size very soon….
As one door closes another one opens, so for now it’s farewell to Ocean Grove and a ‘welcome back home’ to Daylesford for some big and exciting things…
Much gratitude and love Elise & team x