Big brands still in the market for new beauty and wellness brands, say buyers

With everything that's happened over the last two months, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the chances of being talent-spotted by a product scout would be verging on impossible.

But at Enterprise Nation's Beauty and Wellness Exchange, the opposite is in fact the case.

The annual event, to be held online on Friday 22 May, usually pulls in hundreds of British-made beauty and wellness producers to hear from skincare, make-up and wellness experts and pitch to category buyers from leading firms at a glamorous London venue. It's still going ahead - just minus the venue. But the live pitching is still very much a feature, now online.

Fran Morris, skincare, wellness, haircare and mother & baby buyer at Next, says if anything, lockdown has focused our minds on wellbeing and hair and skin nourishment, creating even more of a demand for agile new players.

"It's a very different environment, but with everyone stuck at home and on constant zoom calls it's almost amplified the focus on the beauty and wellness market. We're still actively looking for the right brands to fit our platform - even more so, actually.

"With the focus on clean beauty, sustainability, ingredients, CBD as well as a heightened interest in home hair colour and treatment, we're keen to provide for our customers' evolving needs, so there is still very much a market for new and exciting, agile brands."

The Beauty and Wellness Exchange

The three-hour online event will also see founders of award-winning brand Balance Me talking about their business. Sisters Rebecca and Clare Hopkins will share their story on how they retrained and gave up their stressful corporate jobs to develop a brand that instilled balance into other people's lives through clean, simple products.

There will also be a presentation from wellness Instagram expert and Samsara comms firm lead Helen Morris, and pitching tips from Boots' buyer responsible for wellness innovation, Lily Child. 
 
Enterprise Nation founder Emma Jones said:

"It's fascinating and reassuring at the same time to hear that in some areas, demand for innovative products such as wellness has gone up, not down.

"In many ways, this has developed a unique opportunity for those working the beauty and wellness market to potentially grow their business over lockdown and beyond."