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Beauty and the East – skin and haircare business looks abroad
A Yorkshire haircare and bodycare firm has ambitious plans to raise its turnover from £2m to £10m after gaining a foothold in the lucrative Middle Eastern and Russian markets.
Supre Europe, which is based in Leeds and sells products under the Hempz brand, was set up by former sunbed salesman Tim Driver in 2003.
Now it has managed to buck the recession by picking up business in places like Israel, Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, which have not been hit by the global slump to the same extent as Western Europe and the US.
It is currently in negotiations with four or five firms after attending a beauty products trade fair in Dubai, although Supre Europe is not able to give more details until a contract has been agreed.
Mr Driver said: "The trade fair went very well. The exports have really started to grow last year and the Russian business is set to quadruple over the next few years.
"It took 18 months to get in and find the right people in Russia and now we are selling more and more there." The Russian market, which has seen a surge in interest in Western clothing and beauty products among the middle classes in the last decade, is currently worth between 500,000 and 750,000 to the firm.
Supre Europe, which is a franchise for American beauty firm Supre, has 10 full-time staff as well as agents in Holland and in Paris. It received a major boost earlier this year when supermodel Helena Christensen revealed, in a New York photo shoot for In Style magazine, that she uses Hempz body butter – an all-over moisturiser that is enriched with Hemp seed extract, Shea and cocoa butter. Its products are also used by the cast of soap opera Hollyoaks.
Supre is also particularly interested in expanding in India, where the population is 1.1 million and Mr Driver estimates that about a fifth of the market is interested in his type of products.
The firm also wants to pick up more business in the Middle East and Mr Driver said that women in countries where the burkha is worn are interested in the beauty products. Once in the privacy of their home they remove the covering and use products like Hempz Body Care, he said.
Last year Hempz secured a deal with Russia's largest department store Douglas and it will be sold alongside other high-end beauty products, such as La Prairie, Bliss and Molton Brown. Mr Driver described the deal as "a great step for Hempz, giving the brand a top quality home in Russia".
In Britain Hempz is distributed solely through professional salons, including those of renowned hairdresser Vidal Sassoon.
Mr Driver, whose first job was frying fish and chips at his late father's shop in Burmantofts, Leeds, began his entrepreneurial career with his father by selling sunbeds and hiring them out.
NATURAL LOOK
Hempz sells upmarket hair and beauty products using hemp seed oil and extracts, and has cashed in on the increasing demand for natural ingredients. Its also offers self-tanning lotion which provides vitamins A, C and E.
The bronzers use Caramel and Dihydroxyacetone (DHA), which is derived from plants, such as sugar beet and sugar cane, which works by darkening the skin cells in the epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin, creating a change of colour within a few hours.
Supre launched a new range of four tanning products in May under the So Bronze brand, designed for people to apply before they go out for the evening.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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