Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous and Doug Satzman, XpresSpa CEO, discuss pivoting his business amid the pandemic.
Video Transcript
ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: XpresSpa used to offer manicures, pedicures, and chair massages at airports, and now it is in the coronavirus testing business at dozens of airports across the country, including JFK here in New York City. Joining me now is XpresSpa CEO, Doug Satzman.
Doug, thanks for being with us. I know that you really had to pivot your business early on because your business was not considered essential when the pandemic hit. And you had to shut down your shops within the airports. You came back with this idea now to test for COVID. I'm curious as travel starts to slowly pick up, what has demand been for those services?
DOUG SATZMAN: So as travel picks up, naturally, our business picks up. But more specifically, more destinations are adding clarity to the requirements to enter their state or their country. And that's where we are providing the most value. One, we test passengers and airport employees who feel they might have been exposed or at risk, but also, there's a good part of our business for people to travel to other countries or the state of Hawaii as an example, to meet certain testing requirements upon entry. And we're very conveniently located as part of their check-in process.
ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Are these-- people who are coming to you who are non-airport or airline employees, are these business travelers? Are they families? Just give me an idea of who is actually coming in for these COVID tests and also the antibody tests.
DOUG SATZMAN: So we are seeing a range. Business travelers certainly-- that has been the bread and butter of air travel for a long time. But starting with Thanksgiving and through the holiday season, we saw more and more families traveling and either to visit family, but more often than not, to just get a break from their home stays and going to places like Hawaii or Mexico or the Caribbean. There's not as much trans-Atlantic traffic or Pacific going to Asia or Europe because the restrictions can be more restrictive upon entry with mandatory quarantines. But we're starting to see those paths clear as well.
ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Doug, are you thinking about administering the vaccine? Are you reaching out to be authorized to do that?
DOUG SATZMAN: Yeah, our state licensed medical providers are in the process now of getting registered, meeting each state's criteria. But we're also watching, as the vaccines continue to go through the approval process, a single dose would be the most convenient for our channel that we operate in. But we intend to offer vaccines. We have the right to do it in the airports that we operate in with our approvals. And our focus often will be the men and women who work at the airport or in the airlines, this frontline work force keeping our planes in the sky, but also passengers as well.
ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Do you think that these coronavirus tests can be expected to be just part of our airline travel in very much the same way we have to take our shoes off before going through the detector or discard any liquids? Is this going to be just part of the travel experience, even post the pandemic?
DOUG SATZMAN: I absolutely am convinced of that. I mean, you raised a good point. We're still taking our shoes off because one guy tried to slip a shoe bomb in. You know, these are changes that will be in effect. And whether it's coronavirus or COVID-19 or a COVID-20-- God forbid it comes out-- or other infectious diseases, travel is now going to change, going forward. And people want to know that they're in a low risk environment. And countries want to know that people are coming in clean.
ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: So if that's the case, what does that do to the XpresSpa business model? I mean, do you not come back and become-- and be all spas? Will some of your locations be converted into sort of these medical clinics?
DOUG SATZMAN: So the XpresSpa, our legacy business, we're still watching to see air traffic pick up to make it viable. We want to make sure when we open them, they'll restore their profitability. But the path is getting people confident and traveling again, reduce risk. The vaccine dissemination certainly helps. Clean COVID tests helps, safety protocol.
But some of our spas will convert to express checks. That's already happening now. Maybe they reopen, but might turn into something else. We're working on a new concept now that takes what we've learned from the health and wellness part of our business, what we're learning today in the medical, to have a combined set of services that are part medical and health and wellness. COVID testing, infectious disease testing will certainly be one of those.
But in a post-pandemic world, people are going to have new expectations of the services that are offered at airports and other travel venues. And we think we can lead in this space. Travel, health, and wellness segment is starting to emerge. There's travel, there's health and wellness, but travel, health, and wellness together is going to create some new industries and we plan to be at the forefront.
ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: That sounds really exciting, and it sounds like you're right on the pulse of what's happening right now. But can you give me an idea of what might a service like that be that sort of marries travel, health and wellness, and medicine?
DOUG SATZMAN: So let's say you're planning a vacation. You're going on a safari. And you need medicines to take with you, or you need some vaccinations, or you need a test to gain admittance to that part of the world. These are extended range of services that we could offer. Urgent care has been in airports-- hit or miss in the past. I don't know that a full urgent care model is required.
But something with convenience care that's tailored for travelers, but then also married into health and wellness, kind of this East and West comes together and having a range of services. A lot of our legacy business in the past was dealing with travel or stress. Massage was often a ritual for some travelers to ease.
So combining a broader range of services, targeting travelers, either to get them admitted to a new place, to enable them to travel comfortably and confidently, we think this is a big idea, in addition to the express check business that's continuing to grow and the XpresSpa business that is still in hibernation to either resurface or to evolve.
ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Yeah, well, you'll have to come back and fill us in on how all the changes are going and what the plan is for the future. Doug Satzman, CEO of XpresSpa, thanks so much.