Profile - Claire Croft: Bathing brand that's soaking up attention from famous names

The name comes from mixing up several different translations of the word "bath" to create a unique word associated with bathing.

"It's a relaxing sound that we thought was appropriate," says Croft. "The trouble is nobody can say it or spell it but the good thing is that we are at the beginning of every catalogue. We didn't think about that at the time."

Abahna's customers are typically women aged 35 and over and the brand has attracted a number of celebrities and even members of the royal family, although Croft is unable to divulge specific names.

"It's not been officially confirmed from the Royal Household but it's what we've been told by a stockist. It's very exciting," she says

The company sells to 80 UK stockists, mainly in the South, but Croft plans to double this in the next 12 months.

It has three stockists in Yorkshire: Rose & Co in Leeds's Victoria Quarter, Beau Monde in Ilkley and Fenwick in York.

"At the moment we're quite centred in the South but we exhibited in Harrogate for the first time this summer so we've suddenly got a few more northern retailers," says Croft, who is originally from Ilkley. "We're definitely on the look-out for more because there are so many nice towns in the region."

Croft and her husband, Ed, formed the company five years ago. The couple previously ran a toiletries business, designing bath and body ranges for high street retailers including own brands for Monsoon, Debenhams and Oasis.

Before that, Croft worked in her mother's interior design business in Ilkley, which had a gift shop attached to the office.

"The shop gave me the idea to create a bath and body range," she says. "I found a manufacturer in Keighley and that inspired me to start designing."

Initially, Croft designed a couple of ranges of toiletries for the shop but in 1997 she moved down to London and began creating own-label products for high street retailers.

"Ed and I had absolutely no experience in this industry so when we first set up it was a total learning curve," she admits.

"Before Abahna, we made some great mistakes. I once designed some labels that went inside the jars and they looked really great but then

after about two months all the letters started falling off into

the liquid. That was one of our low points but we rectified

it and learned from the experience."

After creating products for other labels, the couple decided they wanted to have a go at building their own brand.

"Five years ago there weren't many natural brands that were also luxurious," says Croft. "There were apothecary health food shop brands that were aromatherapy but very basic packaging. At the other end of the scale there were very luxurious brands but they weren't natural so we wanted to bring the two together and create a natural luxury brand."

She adds: "We started off with a strong range of three fragrances and we've built on that. We've now got to the stage where we've really compacted the range and every single product sells really well."

The company, which has about 60 products, initially sold in top London retailers including Liberty and Fortnum and Mason. It now exports more than half of its products to distributors in 20 countries, including Australia, Japan and Europe.

"Each country has a very different bathing culture," says Croft.

"Americans shower, so they're really into body lotion. Places like Scandinavia are really into bathing, so bath oils and bath foam are really popular over there and the Japanese don't really like heavy fragrances."

The company plans to expand into the tough US and Middle East markets. "America has got a lot of very good brands themselves and they're really specific about the type of fragrances they like, says Croft. "They like sweet candy type fragrances, which the rest of Europe doesn't."

The company, which rapidly grew in its first year of trading is starting to grow again after the recession and is expecting its turnover to reach between 900,000 and 1m this year.

Abahna went through a difficult period after a number of its distributors collapsed.

Croft says: "We had a year or so where we weren't growing as we'd hoped to. But we've got back on track and looked at some slightly lower price points and really worked with the market. We're now 50 per cent up on where we were last year so we're really pleased with that."

Croft also changed the packaging from cream to bright bold colours to make the products stand out on the shelves, which resulted in a 100 per cent increase in sales.

Earlier this year it was one of the winners of the Walpole "brands of tomorrow" competition, which is held every year for young up-and-coming brands.

Next year, there are plans to work on its website and diversify its range of products. "We only launched an e-commerce site a year ago and we haven't focussed on it enough so that is one of our focuses for next year," she says.

She adds: "We need to differentiate ourselves from the other brands because it's a very crowded market. We'll add new things that are associated with bathing such as bathroom accessories and ceramics."

The couple, who have two children, Iris, seven, and Olly, five, run the business with two other people, from an office next

door to their home in Clapham, London.

"It's hard because although I do work I don't want to be a full-time working mum who doesn't see their kids," says Croft.

"We launched Abahna the year Olly was born, which was difficult but we managed to do it somehow. I make sure that either Ed or I drop them off in the morning at school and one of us picks them up.

"The great thing about being self-employed is that you are flexible and now they are a bit older it's much easier."

CLAIRE CROFT

– THE CV

Title: Founder and creative director of Abahna

Date of birth: September 11, 1970

Education: Moorfield School Ilkley, Oakham School, Rutland, and an architecture degree at Manchester University

First job: Interior designer

Favourite song: The Power of Love – Frankie Goes to Hollywood

Car driven: Black VW Golf

Favourite film: The Go Between

Favourite holiday destination: Hydra in the Aegean sea

Last book read: No & Me by Delphine de Vigan

What I am most proud of: Creating a brand from scratch that is now sold in some of the world's most prestigious retailers.