Jackie Smith says you have to keep moving forward and embracing change to take advantage of opportunities after a challenging year.
Smith, who co-founded cosmetic and skincare company Caci Clinic, says New Zealand needs to reduce bureaucracy to help kick-start the economy again.
How would you describe 2024 for yourbusiness?
2024 presented challenges and opportunities. Of course, high interest rates and a depressed economy have had an impact on discretionary spending for most people, and that includes our customers. However, at the same time the economic environment forces you as a business to keep looking for better ways to operate and deliver for your customer. We have spent a lot of time in 2024 planning how we can be better, and that is exciting.
What will be your biggest business challenges in 2025?
Moving quickly. We have a lot planned and the world is getting faster.
For the whole team managing and embracing change is a constant. To be successful you have to keep moving forward. What worked yesterday may not work tomorrow and we must evolve. That sounds simple, but when a person has invested time and effort in a project, it can be hard to let that go and move on to new work.
We are all hopeful that the NZ economy picks up in 2025. It looks as though the reduction in interest rates will have a good impact on that. That in turn should make growth a little easier for us. Caci remains an ambitious brand that keeps customers and their needs at the heart of everything we do. It is easy as a society to be a little dismissive about skincare and skin confidence and to trivialise it. However, our customers don’t see it that way. Being confident in your skin can have a knock-on effect on the rest of a person’s life. An easing in the economy allows people to feel they can more readily invest in themselves.
Electrical treatment using probes at Caci Clinic. Photo / George Novak
What will it take to kick-start New Zealand’s economy?
There are structural changes that need to be made that reduce bureaucracy and it would seem that our current Government are committed to finding and making those changes.
How will a Trump presidency affect the geopolitical dynamics?
That is a question that is beyond me. I’m an entrepreneur, not a political scientist. He is such a wildcard that surely any answer to that – even from experts – is speculative. My hope is that a Trump presidency is less destabilising than we all think it has the potential to be.
What are the concrete actions your company has taken to reduce climate change?
We moved the manufacturing of our skincare brand, Skinsmiths, to New Zealand a couple of years back, significantly reducing our carbon footprint. We’re also proud that Skinsmiths is a plastic-negative certified brand. Our Plastic Negative Certification, achieved through our partnership with rePurpose Global, a social enterprise that enables the removal and recovery of two times as much plastic from the environment as created by each product sold.
Skinsmiths packaging is fully recyclable and airless packaging. Our airless bottles protect the efficacy and shelf life of our active ingredients, while the unique mono-material technology of our packaging range ensures that the whole unit, the bottle cap and pump, is fully roadside recyclable. Skinsmiths is Peta- approved cruelty-free through their Global Beauty Without Bunnies Programme, our product range and all our ingredients are animal test-free and vegan friendly.
How are you increasing diversity in your business?
We do not have policies around diversity, although philosophically, we have always been an egalitarian company and so have not felt the need. We are well mixed across most spectrums of diversity except gender diversity. We are heavily weighted towards female employees at all levels, from board and executives to the newest recruit.
What is your New Year’s resolution?
I don’t set a New Year’s resolution, but I do love the aspirational feeling of a new start at the beginning of the year. Taking a break over the Christmas period with family and friends creates space to reflect and to re-evaluate what is important in life. David and I take the time over January to map out what we want for the year.
Where and how are you holidaying this summer?
In Auckland with family – children and grandchildren, and plenty of day trips to the beach. We usually manage a good holiday earlier in the year, so we love staying in and around Auckland during Christmas. The city feels so much more relaxed.
What would you recommend as a good podcast to listen to over summer?
I have a strong interest in health as a topic. The internet waves are rife with opinions. The Drive by Peter Attia, and Zoe. I like them both because their posts are very evidence based rather than opinion based.
