It’s hard to believe, but this week, The Massage Centre is 10 years old! We first began trading from inside PR Hair on Turnham Green Terrace all the way back in December 2008. Back then it was just one therapist, Fran Kehoe, operating from a basement room below the hair salon. We gradually grew to a team of 7 sports and remedial therapists before upping sticks to move all of 6 doors away to our newly renovated and current clinic building in 2012.
Up until that point Fran, and by then with Ali (his future wife) on board, ran a virtual reception service – taking bookings, organising therapist training and helping to grow the business from their flat in Hammersmith. As the business grew they recruited Dorothy who became the weekend voice of TMC. December 2012 saw them move into their own and larger 6 treatment room clinic. This meant that the virtual reception team of Ali and Dorothy now had a reception area to base from and welcome clients in person.
The following years saw The Massage Centre grow in size to the level where we have 15-18 quality therapists and a team of 5 full and part time receptionists. As a clinic we are quite unique in that we specialise in deep tissue, sports and remedial massage treatments – most similar sized clinics tend to be multi-disciplinary.
We have always aimed to raise the standard of massage therapy as a profession and have been fortunate to earn a reputation of trust from our Chiswick clients. Although Fran no longer treats clients he plays a new role of making sure that therapists are supported with the right environment, learnings and resources to do high quality work.
Fran originally started The Massage Centre to help clients by providing effective massage treatments to help them recover from pain, discomfort and musculoskeletal dysfunction. His own interest and passion arose from receiving treatment to help him recover from serious back, hip and shoulder issues. He found it difficult to find good therapists to help and questioned why some treatment methods were more effective than others. Curiosity opened his horizon and after training in several treatment styles he was ready and passionate to try and help the people of Chiswick through his newly found skills.
Nine months after opening The Massage Centre doors, Fran was no longer able to service the demand from his clients and this triggered the need to grow organically and recruit a therapist to help with the work load. In those first four years the practice grew quickly and luckily Fran was able to convince Ali, his partner, to leave the security of her salaried Event Management role to organise the expanding team of therapists and clients with super efficiency.
As with any growing organisation The Massage Centre has had to overcome challenges along the road related finding the best structure, recruitment, team management etc. Our mission was to improve people’s lives through massage therapy and we adopted the values of Service, Professionalism and Client Empowerment. Our clients responded positively and we were able to develop a team culture to care for the needs of many who visited our doors.
10 years is a long time in business and we are blessed with the memories of many therapists and clients who have transitioned through London over the years. We still feel like a young clinic and look forwards to the adventures and partnerships forged between clients and therapists over the next 10 years.
We would like to thank all who helped us along this journey and feel grateful for all the learning, trust and confidence that so many of you have entrusted us with. Thank you all!
