Following a growing post-coronavirus consumer interest in a more sustainable and clean way of living, the global market share of organic and natural skincare products is on the rise. It was valued at $10.84 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5 percent from 2020 to 2027.
In the region, it is expected to grow by 11 percent, coming off a lower base, but nevertheless, “impressive,” said Lord Robert Newborough, owner of UK-based organic farm Rhug Estate which produces Wild Beauty, a range of organic or clean skincare products produced from wild forage and other crops, honey, and spring water all of which are produced on the estate.
Raised by his father to farm, Newborough eventually started farming in 1998, taking up organic farming before it became fashionable.
“Everyone thought that I was absolutely crazy back then, but I was doing something I believed in and something I feel good about. I’m very conscious about sustainability and creating something to leave to the next generation that’s better than how they found it in the first place,” said Newborough.
From that idea, the business grew and diversified but always focused on how to use products and resources found on the estate. This was when the idea of an organic and natural skincare line came in, he said.
In an industry which is dominated by unsubstantiated claims, Newborough sought for Wild Beauty to be different by listing all its ingredients clearly and focusing on sustainability.
“Because I travel a lot, I would walk through the duty free, and would see all those super brands there and I started to look at them a little closer. Some of them seemed to make claims which were not substantiated, there was no certification on the back and there was a high degree of dishonesty in the marketplace,” said Newborough.
“Very few products, back then were doing organic and natural and so I thought there was a place in the market for niche products that were healthy for the skin. I think that’s where the growth will be for the future because the pandemic has driven us towards a much more sustainable, cleaner, less controversial world, basically,” he continued.
Lord Robert Newborough, owner of UK-based organic farm Rhug Estate.
In a highly competitive market, Newborough said passion is important to stand out. “One has to be confident that one is producing a high performance, luxury, skincare product that is equally able to compete against synthetic products,” he said.
“We live in a world where they’re all talking about sustainability and this is what organic and natural skincare is all about: I think connecting the two and getting that message out is absolutely key to success. Also, you have to substantiate your claims and put honesty back in the industry,” continued Newborough.
Wild Beauty is present in the UAE through online beauty platform SecretSkin and in Harvey Nichols in Qatar and Newborough said he sees a lot of opportunity for further growth of the skincare range in the GCC.
“The whole GCC is an area we’d like to expand into. People in the region are becoming more conscious about clean beauty and also sustainability. It is a really important market for us and we did set out in the first place with that in mind, and that’s why our products are Halal certified,” explained Newborough.
“We’re also talking to distributors in Japan, Russia, Germany, China and other parts of the world. On top of that, we will be targeting the USA as well. We want to make it a truly global brand and we’d like to be in the forefront of clean beauty,” he continued.
Newborough sought for Wild Beauty to be different by listing all its ingredients clearly and focusing on sustainability.
Newborough had the following advice to give to entrepreneurs launching their own start-up:
- If you have a good idea, do it because if you’re convinced by you’ll make it work.
- You have to be humble and be prepared to learn off other people. Do not pretend to know everything when you start out because it is a steep learning curve when you launch your own business.
- Stay focused on what your belief or your driver is.
- Try and get a mentor you can talk to who understands what you’re trying to do and who you can turn to if you run into some difficulty. You need a network of people in the industry as you will learn a lot of them and grow organically.
- Customer feedback is really important so listen to what your customers are saying to you.
- Think always that you can improve on what you’re doing. There, there’s never a day that you can arrive and say you’ve done it all. You must always try to drive doing better.
- Be prepared to meet financial challenges along the way, because there will be problems that occur. Try and think of what will happen if you have a cash flow problem or if you don’t have a profitable year one.
Follow us on
