Jo Fairley, founder of organic chocolate giant Green & Blacks, spoke to attendees at Spa Life UK this week about building an ethical global business, and offered business advice on investment in design and customer service.

Fairley, who is the author of The Anti-Ageing Health & Beauty Bible and The Green Beauty Bible, also opened and ran a wellness centre in Hastings, England, which she sold earlier this year.

“Spa is a business I’m extremely passionate about as an insider as well as an observer,” she said.

Fairley launched the Green & Blacks brand “on a very, very rainy evening in our flat in Portobello Road with a yellow legal pad and a biro,” she told the audience. (She later sold it to Cadbury’s for an undisclosed amount.)

She suggested businesses focus on the key areas of branding and design, product quality, customer service, and public relations, as well as the ethics that underpin a brand.

“They ain’t rocket science,” she said. “You don’t have to completely reinvent the wheel. You do have to do certain things really well.”

As a former beauty journalist, Fairley said she understood “what pushed journalists’ buttons” when she launched Green & Blacks, and that one square of her chocolate was worth 1,000 words.

“I’m a massive fan of sampling generally,” she said.

Fairley is also a fan of good design, especially in what she said is “an ever-more design-conscious world.”

“People often think they don’t have money to spend on high-quality design, and it has to go at the top of the list,” she said. “...I believe every single penny that is invested in good design – and good interior design – will be repaid a thousand times over.”

She put this into practice not just with the iconic Green & Blacks packaging, but also when she opened her own wellness centre after selling the chocolate brand.

“Everything had to look and feel a notch above the average wellness centre,” she said.

The centre included nine treatment rooms, as well as a healthy eating cookery school and yoga and pilates studios, and won an award for Healing Spaces in Holistic Healthcare.

“The building and the environment itself is part of the treatment,” she said.

Fairley also said she is “obsessive” about customer service.

“It is the lifeblood of any business,” she explained. “These days, it will be out there in the blink of an iPhone if there’s a problem.”

She said in every business she’s run, her employees knew they could never get into trouble for over-delivering on customer service.

“It’s about an attitude,” she said. “The customer is always right – even when they’re wrong.”

Fairley also advised that companies enter themselves for awards whenever possible – something she personally did from day one.

“When you have a great product or a fantastic service, it’s worth the time,” she said. “Whenever you win an award, it’s a fantastic PR opportunity, and it’s a really good way to help you stand out in an ever-more-crowded marketplace.”

Today, Fairley is working on The Perfume Society, a networking website for people who love fragrance, and she also incorporates wellness into her own life, practising meditation and yoga, which she said keeps her "strong and flexible."