Every week I get any number of enquiries from prospective commerical customers from all around the world wanting to launch ther own skin care brand or product. I realised some time ago I was spending a lot of time compiling responses and preparing quotes for these emails with little to no return for me. Many were just fishing for information. As the sole person in the business I had to work out a way to respond to the genuine enquires and not lose that business, whilst not wasting time on the others. Since putting some of my consultancy packages on the website this has given people an idea of inital costs and what is involved.These are detailed here. The first thing I do is ask the person what sort of products, where they plan to sell, what sort of volumes they expect and have they already been doing anything so far. If they reply back with this information I can then send them information relating to their needs. For example are they looking for base products to then create their own unique products- these are very popular and can be purchased direct from the website for either retail or wholesale here. Some customers want a ready made range which they rebradn as their own.this is called 'Private Label" and these can be customised a small amount. These products are popular in beauty salons where the own wants their own range without having to pay enormous sums for larger commerical brands. Some of the private label options are detailed here.
The final commerical service I offer is "Contract Manufacturing" which is the most expensive option. This involves the creation of completely new products based on the customers' vision or from research conducted by me. Contract manufacturing involves scoping out the product brief, researching ingredients, developing test formulae and the making and testing them. Usually more revisions are needed. All of this takes a significant amount of time which is reflected in the pricing structure. It is not just a matter of whipping a few things together and seeing what happens.
Generally when people ask me how much it costs to launch a range, at a bare minium you won't get much change of of $5-$10K by the time you factor in design services, online presence, packaging, external laboratory testing and development costs. When I was developing my export business through to Asia the costs were nearer $100K due to the cost of trade shows, advertising, travel, engaging local consultants and in market testing.
What I can offer is a bespoke service for the small to medium business -I only work with a few clients at a time and I am very careful that products don't cross over (for example I never make the same formulation for more than one customer of finished product). I am a small home based business myself, with a dedicated laboratory set up in my home so my overheads are much lower than larger manufacturers. I can work with clients requiring volumes from 5-50 kg batch, however once they are getting bigger than that I am happy to hand over to a larger manufacturer. I offer a quick turn around and small batch sizes (Usually 5 kg filled) however this depends on the product. A low wholesale MOQ of $550 +GST means it is cost effective for my clients.
The Impact of Covid
Like many small businesses Covid had a huge impact with orders cancelled and income dried up over night. One thing I learnt from that is how vulnerable I was carrying large stock levels of ingredients especially where I had ordered in special stuff for clients and then those orders were cancelled. That was an expensive lesson to learn and now I only buy in specialist ingredients when clients have paid for them and they own the surplus not me. A thorough audit of y business meant a few things have gone. For example I now no longer make hair care products or supply retail sized products. There are some treid and tested formulations for sale if you wish to do these yourself. There have been additional hygiene related costs: all manufacturing is done with additional protection, sanitisation and care with disposal of waste material. There are still supply issues with some globally sourced ingredients, eitehr being unavailable or very expensive.
So if you have read this far thank you!
There are no shortcuts in developing natural skincare products and I look forward to working with my valued clients for a long time to come.
I offer:
- A niche dedicated service to a small number of clients
- A fast turnaround of finished products
- A range of consultancy and private label options to suit most needs
- Bulk base products
I don't do:
- Graphic design, label printing or applying
- Packaging supply
- Marketing or branding
- Drop shipping
- Non vegetarian or vegan products
- Coloured make up
- Sun care products
- Solid hair care products
- Solid soaps
Posted: Saturday 3 April 2021