Jo Horgan is meticulous.
Every single detail in Mecca’s new 4000sq m Bourke St Melbourne store has been signed off by the brand’s founder and co-CEO’s impeccable eye.
Every vintage light fixture, reclaimed tile repair job, service, touch point and brand that make up the beauty retailer’s new store have been approved by her and tested by her team.
She will never admit it herself - she’s quick to credit that powerhouse team - but her loyal staff confide just how much Horgan still does, 28 years on from launching the retail beauty store chain.
So with the new Melbourne flagship store signifying a bold era in the brand’s history, it seems only right that Horgan reflects on where she and Mecca, now a billion-dollar brand, began.
“I used to sit there watching my mother when I was growing up, taking off the makeup at night or putting it on to go out,” Horgan tells the Herald, recalling her early years at the family home in London.
Horgan says the closeness and experience of chatting to her mum as this daily task took place helped her realise the powerful link between beauty rituals and bonding.
“It’s so deeply rooted in me, the sense of intimacy, of human connection,” Horgan says, sharing this early feeling was later a catalyst for Mecca.
The family moved to Australia when Horgan was 14, and she eventually settled in Melbourne as an adult, later selling her home to raise funds for her first store.
That original Mecca, located in South Yarra, sold makeup brands like Urban Decay, Stila, and cult-favourite NARS.
The brands were taking a bet on the young founder. Horgan came in with a bold vision, wanting customers to experience multiple brands in one store - not single counters run by single brands. At the time, the concept was a risk and largely untapped in Australia.
Ten years later, she took the concept to New Zealand customers, opening the first Mecca in Ponsonby in 2007.
The bet paid off, and 28 years later, those brands and customers remain loyal to her.
“Nobody gave two hoots what was going on here because it was so far away,” Horgan says with a laugh. “There was no internet. And it was a long way away on the plane. Getting the brands was hard because they’re like, ‘Who are you and why?’”
But once they signed on, Horgan says they never looked back, trusting her on the “tangents,” she wanted Mecca to go on, even when brands changed hands.
“I feel like we’ve had the luckiest time with the brands that we’ve had for a long time as well. A long-term marriage,” says Horgan, referencing her “28-year marriage to NARS”.
French founder François Nars was so taken by the Mecca experience and Australia, Horgan says, he wanted to stay in the country and buy a home.
The 56-year-old calls that in-store experience, which she and the now 200+ stable of brands have created, a “happy place” that transcends generations.
“Twenty-eight years ago, I started making this for me and my mum. Fast forward, and it’s for me and my mum and my daughter.
“You go into Mecca and you’re standing side by side and you’re trying products, and you’re having a really fantastic time. [It’s a] bonding experience,” says Horgan.
Horgan’s happy place can now be found in more than 100 Mecca stores, 13 of which are in New Zealand; eight in Auckland, one in Hamilton, one in Tauranga, one in Wellington, one in Christchurch, one in Queenstown and a pop-up in Dunedin.
Then there’s the brand’s online offering and Mecca Beauty Loop loyalty programme, a favourite among the beauty community.
But in a world that’s going more and more online, Horgan says she’s still betting on the brick-and-mortar stores. Now more than ever.
“In a world that’s becoming increasingly transactional, I think people are craving community, connection, experiencing theatre, a reason to go out, to do things in real life.”
She credits New Zealand customers as being a special part of helping her test that experience and the loyal community she has on our shores.
“We are enormously grateful to New Zealand for showing us that it’s possible,” says Horgan, revealing that the New Zealand market has allowed Mecca to test scale and see how big they can go with store size, based on population.
“We opened a 900 square metre store in Christchurch, a city which I don’t think even has a million people living it. It was such a big bet at the time, and it actually means that this store isn’t big enough,” laughs Horgan, pointing to the massive 3000 sq m store around her, which will cater to Melbourne’s population of more than five million.
But what’s next in her favourite testing ground? While Horgan won’t be drawn on the details, she admits there’s “an enormous amount” in the works for New Zealand.
Apothecary, a wellness concept based on a holistic, natural approach to beauty, and Aesthetica skin services such as facials and injectables, are currently offered at Mecca Bourke St, and look likely to soon be on the menu for Kiwis. But the founder says they want to let the customers decide.
“I look at apothecary and I think New Zealand would just absolutely wrap their arms around it - you are already global leaders in health and wellness, so how can we meet you where you are?”
Wherever we are, Horgan says she’s grateful for New Zealand’s pioneering spirit and embracing Mecca from the outset.
“I’m obsessed with New Zealand. I think that it’s the most incredible country with its natural beauty, its dedication to the environment and its individual approach. I love it.
“We started out and we had no idea what we were doing, and New Zealand wasvery forgiving; we’re very grateful.”
It’s clear now that Horgan and her team know exactly what they are doing, to the point that they need a three-storey building to house their customers’ insatiable thirst for the brand.
And that impressive store, nearly five times the size of Mecca’s experiential Christchurch store, is the beauty lover’s equivalent of Ikea.
The new store houses more than 200 brands, some exclusive to Mecca, as well as 80-plus services, all pulled together by a team of more than 300 staff. It’s all for the estimated 50,000 people who will walk through its doors each week.
“The significance of this space lies not in its scale but in what it represents: 27 years of evolving alongside the people who make Mecca what it is – our team, our customers and our brand partners,” says the CEO.
So with a single store the size of most department stores now on offer, what could possibly be next? A Mecca museum? School? Hotel? It’s all possible, and all being considered.
“Genuinely, every time there’s an inflection point in this business, the fun starts with how our customers will interact with it. What will we learn? Where will that allow us to go next?”
“Now that we’ve done this, I think genuinely we are slightly beside ourselves with excitement,” Horgan adds.
But no matter what happens next, no matter the odds, Horgan says Mecca’s team will well and truly make it fly.
“I still think about Mecca like the bumblebee. It shouldn’t be able to fly, but nobody told it. So it just gets on and does it.”
Jenni Mortimer is the New Zealand Herald‘s chief lifestyle and entertainment reporter. Jenni started at the Herald in 2017 and has previously worked as lifestyle, entertainment and travel editor.