Molton Brown's bold take on Blue Monday

Ever since it opened its first salon in London’s exclusive Mayfair district in 1971, cosmetics and fragrance firm, Molton Brown, has been a business that – with its multi award-winning signature scents, and luxurious hair and body washes – has focused unflinchingly on the beauty and wellbeing of the individual.

Gabriele Arend

Vice President HR, EMEA, Kao Corporation

But despite the artisan-founded business later being bought by the gigantic Kao Corporation (Japan’s largest consumer goods company), in 2005 for £170 million, the family-run feel in the company hasn’t diminished. At a corporate level this culture is verbalised as the ‘Kao Way’. It translates to meaning beauty for everyone, but not just external beauty, but internal beauty and inner wellness too. And this applies not just for customers but for its own employees too.

But in terms of it showcasing its commitment to the wellbeing of staff, there’s no initiative that demonstrates this louder than one the brand has literally just run –involving it closing the entirety of its stores, all of its EMEA offices and also its UK production site, for an entire day. And it’s all in the name of enabling staff to recharge and recuperate, and boost their mental and physical wellbeing.

Putting its money where its mouth is

This ‘closure’ was specifically timed to coincide with ‘Blue Monday’ – traditionally the third Monday of each New Year, and the one that (with Christmas over, but payday still a way away), is supposedly the most ‘depressing day of the year’.

With virtually all high street retailers constantly reporting how tough trading conditions are right now, it’s undoubtedly a bold move – one with obvious bottom-line impacts. But according to Gabriele Arend, Vice President HR, EMEA at Kao Corporation, who first introduced it, and has now overseen five of them, the event’s symbolic importance is far more important than losing a day’s trading.