Birmingham plastic surgery firm Skin collapses as passengers demand answers

One of the UK’s biggest plastic surgery providers, with more than 70 branches across the UK, has collapsed. Skin, based in Birmingham, told customers who called its head office number on Tuesday that it had ceased trading.

The message read: “Unfortunately, as of July 17, Skin Group, including Skin Clinics, Harley Medical Group, Skin Brands, Skin Experts and ABC Medical have ceased trading.” As of 5pm on Tuesday, Skin’s website was replaced with a message saying the company had “undertaken an extensive process to secure investment to allow it to continue trading, but unfortunately we have not had success”.

It added: “We recognize that this outcome will have a significant impact on our team members and our customers, and we are deeply sorry for the stress and inconvenience this has caused. We are doing everything we can to address the concerns of those affected and will contact all customers still awaiting test results as soon as possible. All further updates will be provided on this website and when available.”

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Before the site disappeared, it said the company had “the largest network of specialist skin care clinics in the UK”. Founded in 1990, the company expanded to locations in Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow and had 17 clinics in London. It had branches in Birmingham city center and Edgbaston.

It also owned brands such as cosmetic surgery firm Harley Medical Group and skin technology company ABC Medical, whose phone lines had the same automated message. Skin had over 450 consultants, doctors, nurses and medical practitioners operating in England and Scotland.

The company offered services from tattoo and wart removal to lip fillers and thread lifts, a type of facelift. However, customers were told on Wednesday that their appointments would no longer take place.

One customer, who asked not to be identified, said the next appointment on Tuesday was canceled “out of the blue”. They added that they paid around £700 in advance for a series of appointments and did not complete the course of treatment.

“They did this with no prior warning to clients, no communication about how to get a refund for treatments owed to clients,” the person said. Skin’s accounts on X, formerly Twitter and Instagram, also appeared to have been taken down.

Communications firm Kendrick, which was Skin’s PR agency, wrote in an Instagram post that it was “blindsided” by the news. The post indicated that Skin had ceased trading, but that “at this time we have no information for the media and understandably patients to contact us for clarity on the situation.”

“We have no information on how things are handled by SK:N (or HMRC/debt collection), or how canceled patient appointments/payments etc will be rectified. Unfortunately, we are in the same position as many staff and patients and regret that we have no news to share – this situation has blindsided us all.”

The PA News Agency has reached out to Skin for comment.