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The bass thump of the dance tune pounds through La Socit, a restaurant of Toronto nightclub king Charles Khabouth, who inside a flourish of kitsch has recreated a 19th century Paris bistro, complete with stained glass ceiling, dark wood, white tile floors and art nouveau dcor, in a 1960s poured concrete building.
Two women confer inside a corner booth. Younger is Holly Fennell, a naturopathic doctor with a thriving practice within the tony confines of Toronto’s old-money enclave, Rosedale. Beside her sits Beverley Hammond, a longtime marketing guru. Both sparkle in white. Another woman arrives, a blonde dressed up in black whom Canadians know well: Belinda Stronach.
I have a lot energy after taking this stuff
In the first decade of this century, Stronach, scion of auto parts magnate Frank Stronach, was everywhere: She served as leader of Magna International, then as a politician. Initially a Conservative member of parliament, Stronach famously crossed the floor to the Liberals 10 years ago and have become, for any year, Canada’s minister of recruiting. She made the society pages, too: Along with her two marriages, she has dated Tie Domi, the hockey player, and Peter McKay, the former Conservative defence minister. (They broke up within the floor-crossing incident.)
Of late Stronach has stayed out of the news. It’s not that she’s been idle. Her family members have no role or stake in Magna anymore (her ex-husband, Donald Walker, has become Magna’s CEO); she works as chairman and president from the Stronach Group, a private family business which employs over 5,000 people at its six horse race tracks in California, Florida, Maryland and Oregon.
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Separately she has partnered in a Toronto private equity finance firm, Acasta Capital, with Mark Entwistle, a former ambassador to Cuba, and Anthony Melman, late of Onex Corp. She shares her time between her home in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood, her farm in Aurora, and offices in Florida and California.
A new venture has brought Stronach into the limelight again, a company symbolized with a fountain burbling on the bar here, a kind of elixir of youth full of a rather greenish liquid that Stronach, and also the two other women here, credit for their glowing skin, thick hair and strong fingernails. They refer to it as Age Quencher.
“On a very, like, superficial level, you know, I’ll be that girl for a minute,” says Stronach, flicking back her hair with a toss of her head. “My hair grows” – here she snaps her fingers – “like 10 times faster when I go, like I’m not kidding, I get out of the hairdresser and they’re like you’re hair grows so quick. Well, I’m using this protein powder!”
When a reporter notes that this could accumulate, when it comes to trips towards the beauty salon, Stronach, who turns 50 this season, adds: “I love it! If you’re a chick, that’s a great problem to have. It’s great. I’m serious! Ha ha! Hair and nails? Without a doubt!”
As on her marital status, she says, “I’m totally single. You can put it out there.”
For the month of January, the trio has given 30 women they call “influencers” a trial of Age Quencher, a trio of merchandise which include a vitamin supplement, an electrolyte mixture and a whey protein. Tonight those women are talking of the produces a crowd that includes Victoria Radford, the beauty expert, and socialite Ainsley Kerr.
Health Canada has certified the products, formulated, tested and manufactured in Canada, as Natural Health Products. That designation doesn’t suggest they work, exactly that they won’t inflict harm. A month’s supply retails for $200.
As for that benefits: “We haven’t done a study, it’s more anecdotal to this point,” says Adam Cooper, chief executive of Age Quencher. “My wife has used it for 3 weeks, and the skin on her behalf feet is smoother.”
Fennell pioneered these products whenever a patient, whom cancer treatment had pushed into premature menopause, requested something to keep her youth.
Stronach, someone of Fennell’s for close to a decade, is also a cancer survivor; in 2007, Stronach underwent a mastectomy to overcome cancer of the breast. Stronach and other patients in Fennell’s clinic soon all started to consume Fennell’s “ingestible beauty items.”
Stronach sees in Fennell a business owner in the vein of the Stronach family.
“I was always a follower of Holly’s enthusiasm in order to obtain products,” says Stronach. “She’s endless ideas, for products that can be created to deal with certain illnesses or symptoms, or even things to enhance one’s well being and vitality.”
Fennell recalls, “Belinda and that i were in her own kitchen one afternoon, the two of us feeling really healthy and well, and that we both took the merchandise, so she said, ‘You know what, I’d love to introduce you to Bev and really see what we should can perform about creating this product open to other women.’ ”
Hammond was skeptical.
“I had been no vitamin person, and I had never been to a naturopath,” says Hammond. “Belinda is a strong advocate for wellness and good eating, and I’m kind of a McDonald’s fan, so we’re a bit on the opposite side of the spectrum.
“And so i did a lot of investigation determined that in fact in Asia, in Japan, it’s very prevalant. In Columbia, the skin care capital of the world, it’s quite prominent. Ingestible skin care products is really a new category of beauty product.”
Stronach promises more naturopathic products to come. “I have a lot energy after using this stuff,” she says.
Meanwhile, the race tracks will keep her busy. “The Stronach Group will be making the largest capital investments out of any racing company within the industry because it must modernize,” she says.
Oddly, the family famous for car parts and horses will also launch a really different conveyence in March: a new electric bike, designed and built-in Canada, known as the Elby, which can run 140 kilometres between charges, and will retail for close to $4,000. “It’s the best thing, and it’s super fun to ride,” says Stronach, who herself shows no indications of reducing.
“I love manufacturing, you know,” she says. “I grew up for the reason that.”
Financial Post
pkuitenbrouwer@nationalpost.com
Twitter.com/pkuitenbrouwer
