Rotorua Caci Clinic turns 20 as owner Esther Jacquet pays tribute to her greatest supporter, her late husband

Kerrianne Fladkjar and Esther Jacquet from Caci Clinic in Rotorua celebrate 20 years in business.

Twenty years ago, getting botox, lip fillers or facial peels was something only the rich and famous in America did. Senior journalist Kelly Makiha talks to Caci Clinic Rotorua franchise owner Esther Jacquet about its 20th birthday this week and why a decision to set up business in the city two decades ago paid off.

Esther Jacquet looks at a photograph of her late husband, Jean-Philippe Jacquet, sitting on her office shelf and her voice wavers.

“He would be so proud.”

The husband and wife came to Rotorua 20 years ago from France. After travelling the world with Jean-Philippe Jacquet’s business ventures, they set their sights on Rotorua to settle.

At the time, they saw it as a great place to do business because, compared with elsewhere, living costs were cheap, it was centrally located and there were no traffic woes.

Esther and Jean-Philippe Jacquet. Photo / NZME

Jean-Phillippe Jacquet took over Gilles Bakery in Rotorua and grew the business to employ 80 people and supply French-styled dough to supermarkets across the North Island.

Esther Jacquet took a gamble and opened a Caci Clinic franchise. Jean-Philippe Jacquet was her biggest supporter.

“He was really visionary. Even for me, he would help me with my confidence, trusting me and believing in me.”

Jean-Phillippe Jacquet died on February 2, 2020 in a motorcycle crash on Morrinsville-Tahuna Rd in the Waikato - a moment that changed his wife’s life forever.

“When I am struggling with things. I can hear his voice saying ‘enough crying, keep going’. God left me here for a reason so I have to keep going.”

As the Caci Clinic Rotorua franchise this week celebrates its 20th birthday, Esther Jacquet is proud they have grown the business to employ 11 people.

She and Caci Clinic manager Kerrianne Fladkjar joke they have helped make Rotorua more beautiful.

The Caci Clinic has remained at its original site since it opened in 2004.

Caci Clinic Rotorua owner Esther Jacquet. Photo / Stephen Parker

The doubters didn’t think it would work. Rotorua was seen as a low socio-economic area and wasn’t “boujee” enough to have women wanting to spend money to improve their appearances.

No one else in Rotorua was doing treatments such as botox and fillers and those who could afford it had to go to the bigger cities.

Fladkjar said in their early days a doctor would fly into Rotorua on a Tuesday and do botox treatments as well as vein and mole removals.

Since then, training evolved and qualified cosmetic nurses on staff now do the injectable treatments.

Fladkjar and Jacquet said such treatments had become less taboo.

“New Zealand is slowly catching up,” Jacquet said.

Fladkjar said clients had cottoned on that botox could make their faces look fresher and happier.

“We had people like school teachers who would say their students tell them they look grumpy all the time but they’d say ‘I’m happy’. It was just their frown lines.”

But injectables (botox and fillers) have not been their main focus. Esther Jacquet said skin health and making sure the “canvas” looked healthy and glowy were the priorities.

Fladkjar said everyone wanted the “mirror ball” look but pigmentation was one of their biggest concerns as New Zealanders loved to live in the sun.

Improving your look

Laser hair removal was also one of the crazes that took off not long after Caci Clinic opened.

“I feel like we have lasered the whole of Rotorua,” Fladkjar said.

“Everywhere I go I bang into people who say, ‘you lasered me’. When I started here, I was lasering morning to night.”

Both said it was an awesome feeling making people feel better about themselves.

They said clients with heavy facial hair would arrive with their heads down and not making eye contact but would leave over time with their heads up and happy.

“Some people have said to me, ‘you have saved me, now look at me, because I have no beard’,” Jacquet said.

She said looking good and feeling good improved confidence - and confidence led to success.

“You’re not doing it for anyone else, you’re doing it for yourself.”

Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues