Rapid growth in the air
MANY more good hair days are in store for growth products expert Watermans and its customers following a new partnership between the UK brand and online retail empire The Hut Group (THG).
Watermans is best known for its natural-based shampoos and conditioners which help people such as alopecia sufferers and cancer patients counter hair loss. Its tie-up with THG’s Ingenuity platform has created a new direct-to-consumer site accelerating its international growth.
Integrated trading, merchandising, marketing modules and real time data feeds are among the benefits being brought together.
This is now prompting owners Gail and Matt Waterman to forecast a four-fold increase in sales and a £12million turnover for 2022/23.
All the brand’s formulations, which include vitamins, herbs, plant proteins and oils promoting hair regrowth, are UK-made and developed by the husbandand-wife team and their 12 staff in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.
For Gail and Matt “our plan is to get more distributors throughout the world on board so everyone can benefit from our products’ unique mix of ancient and modern ingredients for all hair types and races. We’re here for anyone who wants thicker-looking, stronger, longer hair.”
Ideal complementary skills – Gail in the hair salon industry and Matt in marketing, plus a shared personal concern about fine and thinning hair – led to the company’s launch in 2014.
With no winning solutions they could see, the pair came up with a remedy in the shape of a shampoo. Its free-from sulphate, paraben, palm oil and cruelty ingredients were founded on an ethos that has increasingly become what customers are looking for.
From trials with Gail’s salon clients to Amazon and Boots’ listings and 13 products so far in its portfolio, Watermans now sells across the world from Europe to Australia and the Far
East. A bottle of its most popular Grow Me shampoo (£13.95) shifts every 30 seconds. Customers are mainly women aged 25 to 65 buying for themselves and men.
It was THG which took the initiative suggesting the partnership.
“Investment has come from our own savings and working every hour possible. We get a lot of enquiries from the US and Malaysia.
“This collaboration can now maximise that and allow us more time to be creative,” says Gail.
“We’ve struggled in the past getting into bricks and mortar. After lockdown this is the right moment to expand our e-commerce model.
“We are also keen to talk to more retailers, for example Waitrose.”
New products in the pipeline include a rich hand cream, a lash growth mascara and a pet shampoo.
For Gail and Matt, working together is one of the best things that could have happened: “We’re soulmates. Our thinking always reflects that.
“We aim to be a household brand.”