Cooking up a new approach
Jo Chidley is determined to make the world a better place in every way with her Beauty Kitchen business, discovers Rosemary Gallagher
Sustainability is becoming a more important part of doing business, with many consumers seeking out environmentally-friendly brands. But for Jo Chidley, who founded Wishaw-based Beauty Kitchen with her husband Stuart in 2014, sustainability is more just than a commercial decision, it is a way of life.
Speaking to Chidley, her commitment to sustainability is clear and she is keen to sell the benefits of a circular economy, which is aimed at eliminating waste and the continual reuse of resources, in contrast to a “take-make-waste” linear model.
Chidley is a chemist and herbal botanist who set up her business with the vision of creating the most effective, natural and sustainable beauty products in the world. In the last six years, Beauty Kitchen has grown from having six products stocked with one retailer to more than 120 products available in the UK and internationally in well-known high street stores and online shops, including Holland & Barrett, Boots, Sainsbury’s, Asos, Feel Unique and Very!
Beauty Kitchen’s range includes skincare products, organic vegan soap, hair care, sanitiser and plastic-free accessories.
The business follows “cradle to cradle” principles in designing its products to leave a positive footprint – creating items that can be recycled or upcycled in a way that imitates nature’s cycle.
Chidley says: “My life-long dream has always been to make the biggest impact I can within sustainability in my personal life as well as within the cosmetics industry. I want to be able to democratise sustainability.
“Making sustainable options accessible and affordable will change the way everyone views their environment. It’s time to renew and protect our resources. If our business and me personally can play a small part in that, I will have reached my ultimate ambition.”
The idea for Beauty Kitchen was born when Chidley found it hard to buy zero waste, sustainably packaged products with natural ingredients. She decided to try to fill that gap, tapping into support available through Scotland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. This approach has proved successful with Beauty Kitchen winning Scottish EDGE in 2014, being part of the Entrepreneurial Spark accelerator powered by Natwest in 2015 and 2016, and the Scale Up Scotland Accelerator in 2018 and 2019. It has also benefited from Business Gateway and is accountmanaged by Scottish Enterprise’s high growth accelerator.
On choosing the North Lanarkshire town of Wishaw as the headquarters for Beauty Kitchen, Chidley says: “It’s not one
of Scotland’s most wealthy parts of the country, so it’s one of our longterm goals to bring more jobs and business to the town.
“Beauty Kitchen became the first UK high street beauty business to become B Corp Certified, meaning we balance profit with purpose. As part of the B Corp community, we work towards reduced inequality, lower levels of poverty, a healthier environment, stronger communities and the creation of more high-quality jobs with dignity and purpose so we can build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.”
Beauty Kitchen’s turnover has doubled every year since launch to reach around £3.3 million, and its team is now 15 strong.
Last year it built on its Returnrefill-repeat programme, followed by Refill Stations, to help customers, retailers and brand owners move from single-use plastics to packaging that is designed to be refillable and reusable.
The programme was begun to let customers return empty packaging to be repeatedly reused. It recently partnered with consumer goods giant Unilever to install three Return-refill-repeat Refill Stations in Asda’s sustainability trial store, which opened in Leeds last October.
Chidley says: “Sustainability can be quite niche, but we want to make it accessible to everyone, so when we launched with Unilever we launched in an Asda store. Since them we’ve been approached for conversation by the likes of Procter & Gamble and L’oreal … we’ve also had conversations with the likes of Innocent Smoothies. Our reuse model can work in other categories throughout supermarkets.”
Chidley says this year is set to be another exciting one, particularly with COP26 – the 26th UN Climate
“My life-long dream has always been to make the biggest impact I can within sustainability”
Change Conference of the Parties – planned for Glasgow, after it was postponed from 2020 due to the pandemic. She says: “We aim to save up to ten million empty single use pieces of packaging from ending up in landfill by rolling out our Return-refill-repeat programme and Refill Stations across Glasgow throughout 2021.”
Given Chidley’s drive and commitment to improving the world, it isn’t surprising to hear that Beauty Kitchen was quick in joining the battle against Covid-19.
She says: “We halted usual production when the Scottish Government asked us if we could help with any critical supplies for the NHS. We also worked double time, with most of the team working from home, to create 50,000 units of refillable hand sanitiser. We made sure that these were part of our Return-refill-repeat programme too, which was a first for the NHS.”
While Brexit has created issues for Beauty Kitchen, mainly in terms of a talent gap and increasing regulation, Chidley is optimistic. She says: “We want to establish our reusable refillable model on a national scale before launching this in other markets. We have had interest from all four corners of the world, so watch this space.”