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Escents CEO Jacqui MacNeill
NEWS photo - Mike Wakefield |
Jacqui MacNeill, CEO
Jacqui MacNeill has a passion for fragrance and a nose for business. If you could bottle the secret to her success, you'd have an effervescent blend of contagious enthusiasm, determination, and a top note of something risky and ethereal that might just be her unshakable confidence.
Jacqui fell in love with scent at the age of 23 when she chanced upon a little boutique that sold essential oils and aromas. Determined that she was onto something big she began custom blending her own scents and selling handmade, quality products at a 4x10 table in Vancouver Canada. There Jacqui shared her passion for aroma from the natural world with an increasingly loyal clientele base, sewing the seeds for what was to grow into a multi-million dollar business.
From these modest beginnings as an untrained perfumer, Jacqui MacNeill cornered the market on the aromatherapy trend in North America and in Asia. How did she do it? Jacqui says that growing her business was largely a leap of faith. She wanted to bring unique, exotic life-enriching products to the world. Colleagues warned Jacqui against expansion, but she believed that if she could only scrape together enough to import the finest ingredients, maintain enough stock, and rent a prominent retail space - the quality of the products would speak for themselves and Escents would continue to grow the way it always had - one customer at a time.
Jacqui took the risk. She opened her first store at Park Royal in West Vancouver, where she blended and bottled aromas by night and delivered her own personable style of highly customized service by day. Two years later, a lot of long hours and doing absolutely everything herself, Escents expanded to two stores and the rest as they say, is history.
Jacqui continued to grow Escents with her husband, John MacNeill, despite a large personal setback. In 2003, during her pregnancy with twins, and with a two year old boy already, Jacqui suffered an Arterial Venus Malformation (AVM), severe bleeding in the brain, when a capillary ruptured. Her doctors saved the babies and then followed with brain surgery on Jacqui. Doctors gave Jacqui a 30% chance of survival and a less than 5% chance of survival without debilitating side affects, paralysis or blindness.
To her doctor’s amazement, Jacqui persevered over months, a slow - and remarkable - recovery. During her two year convalescence, Jacqui maintained her commitment to natural aromas to help herself get well. She complimented her prescribed medication with a positive outlook nurtured by essential oils and mood-enriching products. Jacqui achieved a complete, 100% recovery. With Jacqui now back at the helm, Escents is continuing to thrive and grow as a company.
Through the years Escents has become a success due to the company's employees' unwavering commitment to enriching lives. Escents believes everybody has the power and ability to determine their own destiny and the goal is to facilitate a great life experience for each and every employee and customer.
Escents is a Canadian manufacturer and retailer of aroma-based bath and body products found in over 109 locations worldwide, with the majority of outlets in Canada, USA and Taiwan. In addition, Escents operates an amenities division for hotels and airlines, exclusive spa facilities, a wholesale division, an e-commerce and mail order branch, and a commercial production facility.
What does Jacqui MacNeill attribute her success to?
Perseverance, positive thinking, and a lot of good scents.
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