Emma Lewisham Is Scaling Her Skin Care Business, Slowly and Deliberately
LONDON — Emma Lewisham wants her skin care brand to be around for 100 years, which is why the New Zealand native is scaling slowly and deliberately, without any compromises.
Lewisham started the brand in 2019 with a desire to create luxurious natural products because she couldn’t find any she liked. Also, she wanted to “bring sexy back to natural skin care.”
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She took a blue-sky approach, and always thought beyond New Zealand. “We knew it was going to be a global company,” said Lewisham, who worked with external warehouses from the start in order to be able to ship to multiple countries.
Her approach was successful, and the products have been endorsed by customers including New Zealand’s former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Margot Robbie, Julianne Moore and Rosamund Pike.
Lewisham, whose infectious charm has undoubtedly helped her grow the business, has been expanding on multiple fronts.
This week the brand, which already offers moisturizers, cleansers, serums, masks and exfoliants, broke into the SPF category with a factor 50 sunscreen for the face and body that features 20 percent zinc oxide.
A research paper on the website explains the testing process the brand went through in order to put out the SPF.
Sales have been growing rapidly, and the U.K. is among her top markets.
Sales globally for the year ending March 2024 totaled about 6.1 million pounds and the brand revealed that it’s on track to have revenues of 12.9 million pounds by the end of March this year.
Between April and October 2024, the brand witnessed strong sales growth year-on-year, with Australia up 66 percent; the U.K. 61 percent, and New Zealand 57 percent.
In the U.K., the brand is sold at Space NK, Harrods, Liberty, and the Gleneagles Resort in Scotland, while internationally it is sold at Goop, Mecca, Net-a-porter, Credo and at celebrity facialist and aesthetician Melanie Grant’s skin studio in Los Angeles.
The brand also is in 77 Space NK stores across the U.K. and has increased its “shelf count per door by 137 percent from October 2023 to February 2024,” according to the company.
Margaret Mitchell, chief commercial officer of Space NK, said Lewisham stands out as a “brand with a truly authentic founder, championing efficacious, science-backed skin care but with a brand purpose around sustainability that is unique in the market.”
Mitchell added: “She is very knowledgeable on the science of skin care and on product formulations, but she is also very hands-on. She is the first founder who has herself visited every single Space NK store to meet the store teams and train them personally in the store.
“This is so unique for a founder to do this, and the return on this time investment has been exceptional in terms of the downstream sales performance.”
The brand will be adding Selfridges to its portfolio of British retailers in the spring.
She has a natural affinity for Britain. “Growing up in New Zealand, you always feel a sense of home to the U.K. because of the Commonwealth. It’s part of the dialogue and fabric of New Zealand,” she said.
She’s also banking on other markets for growth. In January, Lewisham launched in the U.S. with Credo and decided to further invest in the brand’s direct-to-consumer business in the country.
“The business is looking to increase U.S. online sales by 83 percent year-on-year through increased digital and PR investment. [We’re also] setting up third-party logistics for the U.S. for next-day delivery times,” said the company.
When Lewisham launched the brand, she didn’t take on any investors. For the first two years the business was profitable and she put that back into the brand to grow it.
Then in 2021, she took the decision to invite investors when the business started to grow rapidly.
“Our investors are high-net worth individuals with similar values to us, and believed in the vision that we had and didn’t want an exit [after making a profit]. They’re comfortable with us building a long-term brand and they’ve been people who are top business people or advisers to Jacinda Ardern,” she said.
Lewisham attributes much of her early success to the people of New Zealand. “The New Zealand customer is quite discerning — they need to like your values and understand who you are before they buy into you,” said Lewisham.
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