A new complexion on career

May 14 2007 By The Journal

A Durham GP with serious entrepreneurial tendencies has built up a new career as chief executive of a multi-million pound stock market-listed skincare company. James Barton has an appointment with Dr Mark Randle.

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Modest and youthful, it is surprising to learn Sunderland-born GP Mark Randle has achieved so much in his 40 years. Dr Randle is the chief executive of Dermasalve Sciences, a Newcastle business well on the way to achieving its two-year sales target of £3m following flotation on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) at the start of last year.

It is now looking to make significant inroads into the £440m medicated skincare market and is poised to recruit 500 full and part-time sales staff across the UK in the next 12 to 15 months to sell direct to the public as part of the launch of a new range of moisturising products called Breathe Skincare.

"This is a big step for us," says Randle seriously. "I felt that because our products are now prescribed to people with a variety of skin conditions, we should take this obvious success and present it to people who are simply looking for good quality moisturising products, which is why we are launching the new range of Breathe Skincare.

"We felt that the direct sales approach is the right way to go so people can have the products explained to them."

His senior commercial role seems a long way removed from his medical duties.

"I still do the occasional surgery," he explains, "although my work as a GP has had to take a back seat following the launch of this business.

"There are elements to being a GP which I miss, such as the banter and interaction with patients but generally the impact I can have on the medical industry as whole when these creams really take off will be much bigger than anything I could have achieved as a GP."

Randle has always been keen to pursue commercial projects, showing early signs of promise working as a merchandiser at Heathrow Airport whilst at St George's Medical School in London.

"I was able to earn between £500 and £600 a week working for a contact I had at the airport.

"Medical school is expensive and, although my parents helped, I still wanted a descent lifestyle so a group of us would do 80 or 90 hours a week at Heathrow between terms."

Things took an even more unorthodox direction once Randle passed his exams. He spent three months in the Caribbean working in the healthcare system there.

"The idea is that you spend time learning about healthcare and how it is administered abroad, but obviously I was also able to explore the beauty of the region as well," he smiles.

After spending time on the beautiful island of Bequia, near the island of Mustique, he returned to London in 1990 but was put off returning to medicine by his doctor friends' tales of 140-hour weeks.

"I didn't know what I wanted to do but knew I was seriously out of pocket following my studies," he says. Then after reading an advertisement in London for an advertising sales position, Randle decided to apply.

"It said I could earn £50,000 a year. I rang up, they gave me some information and they asked me to call back and sell them some advertising space as part of my interview."

Randle was offered a job on the spot and within six months became one of the company's top performing sales staff.

"These were good times. I was able to support a decent lifestyle and pay off my student debt," he recalls fondly.

Randle soon left to launch his own advertising sales business, based in Kings Road, London, with several partners and he learned some valuable commercial lessons. "We made a very good start but it soon became apparent that some of us were doing the bulk of the work and after another six months I pulled out of the company," he says.

It was at this point in 1991 that Randle decided to return to the North-East and resume his medical career.

"It was tempting to stay in sales but it was getting to the point where if I left it any longer my medical studies would have needed updating.

"Because I had started something I wanted to finish it and it seemed sensible to continue to pursue medicine."

Randle then spent three years doing his GP training and eventually established a medical practice in Durham, where he now lives with his wife and three children aged four, 11 and 13.

However, his commercial instincts never left him and, whilst working as a GP, he investigated a number of business opportunities and in 1999 set up two businesses, one involved in electronic data capture for use in clinical trials and one delivering online training to medical practitioners.

He explains: "Both ideas at the time of launch were not available in the UK and there were only a few similar type of businesses in the US."

Within two years both companies had sales of several hundred thousand pounds and a workforce of about 25 but Randle was unhappy with the influence some of the major investors were having.

He disagreed over both the businesses' future direction and sold his stake as a result.

"I really had no idea what I was going to do at this point but I was able to spend valuable time with my young family," he recalls.

Whilst Randle was more closely involved in helping to raise his children, he noticed that one of them was suffering from a dry skin condition.

"I did some research and found the condition was being caused by an ingredient (called a sensitiser) in the type of moisturiser they used.

"This got me thinking. As a practising GP, you are provided with a basic medical reference book offering a list of available creams and what sensitisers they contain that could cause a skin reaction. I did some research and found there weren't any creams available that contained no sensitising ingredients at all and that is where the idea for our products came from," he says.

Randle spent the next three years researching the industry and developing the Dermasalve product range before attracting investors such as northern entrepreneurs Karl Watkin and Steven Katirai who then helped guide the company through flotation on the junior stock market, the Alternative Investment Market.

The company now has 2,400 retail outlets in the UK stocking its products as well as a distribution agreement with South Africa, Malta, Cyprus and Ireland and its Dermasalve products are also available on prescription via the UK's 32,000 GPs and 60,000 nurse practitioners.

Randle is also involved in a joint venture to supply a silicone-based product called Safe Cleanse Gel in Thailand and the company has opened a small office in Bangkok.

"Because of the bird flu problem that exists in South East Asia, it has become a priority to find something that kills bacteria on people's skin without drying it out

"The problem has been that hand cleansers used for this purpose have been alcohol-based and, used 20 or 30 times a day by people such as healthcare professionals in hospitals, lead to skin damage. Skin damage can cause cracks in skin and cracks are where bacteria lurk. Our product has been developed to avoid this.

"The company we have tied up with in Thailand owns a stake in several of the country's television and radio stations which will make it easier to raise our brand's profile and roll out the distribution throughout the whole of South East Asia."

Dermasalve supplies its products to retailers through a number of agreements with wholesalers such as Sangers, AAH Pharmaceuticals, and one of the world's top five pharmaceutical wholesalers Numark, as well as supplying direct to Lloyds Chemists' 1,100 UK stores.

Costs within the business are kept low through outsourcing the manufacture of its creams and parts of the research and development process.

"Within our team we have a product manager with a lot of experience which will allow us to keep introducing new products over the next five years. "Our business model is simple: it is to continue to sell our existing products, generating revenues through existing channels such as through prescription and wholesale, continue to build up our brands and make well chosen acquisitions as and when they present themselves."

The company bought a £1.3m business called Healthy and Essential based at Fleetwood, Lancashire, in August last year as part of this plan.

"We felt the refinery process to extract Omega 3 fish oils was very sophisticated and ensured that toxins that had been absorbed by the fish from the sea, such as mercury, are removed completely.

"I am very confident that sales at the new business have increased significantly," he says.

It is clear Randle has ambitious plans for the business and is already looking to the US market as the next frontier, although he is cautious about releasing exactly when that might be.

And, despite the unassuming manner, it is clear that the doctor seriously means business.

"I have taken a lot of risk financially to get to this place. I could have stayed with a safe, steady income from the medical profession. With this business there is a lot of hard work when you are setting things up; it is relentless and often there is no break from it but it is exciting and you are constantly opening up new avenues."

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CV: Mark Randle

1977-84: Red House Comprehensive, Sunderland.
1984-89: St George's Medical School, London.
1989: Advertising sales executive, London.
1990: Partner in an advertising sales business, Kings Road, London.
1991-93: Trained as a GP in the North-East.
1995-2000: Practising GP in County Durham.
1999: Launched two medical businesses.
2002: Sold stake in both businesses.
2003: Launched Dermasalve Sciences.
2006: Floated business on the AIM and becomes chief executive.

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The questionnaire

What car do you drive?
Porsche 911.

What's your favourite restaurant?
The Pavilion in Consett.

Who or what makes you laugh?
My four-year-old son.

What's your favourite book?
Haven't read one for ages.

What's your favourite film?
The Party starring Peter Sellers.

What was the last album you bought?
Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

What's your ideal job, other than your current one?
Painter.

If you had a talking parrot, what's the first thing you'd teach it to say?
Keano!

What's your greatest fear?
Flying.

What's the best piece of business advice you have ever received?
Just go for it!

And the worst?
Don't go for it!

What's your poison?
Lager, red wine, Jack Daniels and Coke.

What newspaper do you read, other than The Journal?
I don't, but I watch Sky News.

How much was your first pay packet and what was it for?
£600 a week, merchandising at Heathrow Airport.

How do you keep fit?
Football, golf, tennis and walking.

What's your most irritating habit?
My mobile phone.

What's your biggest extravagance?
Porsche 911.

Which historical or fictional character do you most identify with/admire?
Don't know.

And with which four famous people would you most like to dine?
Peter Cook, Winston Churchill, Michael Caine, Richard Branson.

How would you like to be remembered?
As someone who likes fun and as a loving dad.