Culture Collective newsletter 6th edition by culturecollectiveCB

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Founder's note It has yet again been a difficult start to the year. Just as ‘living-with-covid’ life resumed (whatever that means) news from Ukraine filled our collective consciousness. As a company we are led by the group response in times of crisis, and I am pleased to say that Cult’s collective voice was called on to help co-ordinate and push for how THG could help as a group (thank you Alicia for managing that). To date, THG has donated £1.2m worth of essential food and hygiene products to refugees fleeing to neighbouring countries, with most of the efforts concentrated in Poland where help can be most quickly dispatched from the THG warehouse there. The situation is being monitored constantly and more help is planned to be released as the crisis continues

As a team, we’re also working through the news that our colleagues at the DC will be leaving us. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our brilliant team at the DC for their ineffable contribution to making Cult what it is today. For working bravely through the pandemic when many of us were shielding in our homes. For caring about our brand and our business as much as we do and for being the people ‘behind the box’- for delivering that sense of elation I still get every time a Cult Beauty box lands on my doorstep. Thank you! I want to officially celebrate the addition of some serious talent to our team. In the last six months, we welcomed our new content marketing director, Kristina Jones, whose team has welcomed our creative lead - Kirsty Butler, senior designer - Asia Wilmot, mid-weight designers Gisela Olsen, Jade Hyde and Katie Barker, junior copywriter Precious Sodimu and Nasreen Osman, Copy Intern – Rina Teslica, social media creative – Leah Stewart, our production manager – Emmeline White as well as Jem’s right-hand woman in PR, Emily Taylor. In our performance marketing team, we have paid social manager – Rochelle Alcee, CRM Manager – Lorena Clacijo Rodriguez, CRM executives – Sarah Crocker and Hazel O’Sullivan, affiliate executive – Catrin Anthony, in SEO, Dorothy Edgar as SEO exec Sophie Parry-Williams as junior executive Lina Lorena Soraya. Welcome to the Cult everyone – there is so much opportunity amongst the transition and we hope you will settle in quickly and love your time here - we are so pleased to have you join us. Looking ahead at some exciting future projects….

Customer focus groups We will be launching the first of a series of team and customer focus groups focusing on gathering customer insights through a diversity, equity and inclusion lens. We have never done the more qualitative research like this before at Cult and it will be exciting and generative to learn directly from our customers. Listening and learning about how we can evolve our DEI among the many facets of our business. It may at times be uncomfortable, it will definitely be inspirational, and it’s only by leaning into discomfort that we can learn from mistakes of the past and keep growing. Look out for the details of this in April as a key message in the makeup campaign. Brand Refresh & Loyalty Two huuuugee projects that I have wanted to come to life for as long as I can remember. Loyalty is soft launching in April 😊, with a full roll out in the summer. It is such an exciting road map and will be integral to our growth as the business scales up. Hot on the heels of Loyalty is our Brand Refresh. Cult has grown up and with it comes a new and chicer look. The eagle-eyed among you will note the new look and feel of this very newsletter for a little hint of what’s to come… Social Causes & Sustainability At Cult we have strong core values. Above all things we value trust. Our mission to be the most trusted beauty retailer in the world remains and from that, weaving in our team values (more on that later) and alignment from group-level our new sustainability and social cause mission statements are being moulded and shaped. Look out for a full update on this in the near future.

Lex

SPOTLIGHT ON: Fran Elliott Managing Director, Cult Beauty CB: Tell us about your role at THG and now Cult- what does your role entail? I have been at THG for six and a half years now in a variety of roles but always in the beauty division as beauty is my absolute passion and obsession! I have been lucky enough to work in ecommerce, marketing and buying before most recently moving over to our Brands division to help run and grow our incredible hair care and body care brands that we own (which I can’t wait to see launch on Cult soon!) Moving forward I will be Managing Director for Cult Beauty helping to further grow the Cult brand and expand into new territories and categories. I am here to help us optimise and drive growth across all areas of the business and encourage us to try new and exciting initiatives to push beauty boundaries.

CB: What do you love most about it? What would you rather do without? I love the fact that no two days are ever the same at Cult Beauty or anywhere in THG! There is always a whole host of really exciting projects and opportunities going on and I can already see how passionate the whole Cult Beauty team is about taking beauty to new heights. I would rather do without the Manchester rain that we have to deal with in the office in the North! CB: Tell us something most people don’t know about you? I am loosely related to Gary Barlow (Take That fans eat your heart out.)

SPOTLIGHT ON:

Giorgia Pepe

E-comm Manager

& Gordon Cooper Head of Finance

Tell us about your role at THG and now Cult- what does your role entail? Giorgia: My previous role at THG was a trading/marketing position for Lookfantastic, Southwest Europe (specifically Germany and Austria, (and yes, I do speak German!). This involved devising the trading calendar for the region, working closely with the buying teams to secure offers/reach out to new brands, devising and executing our CRM strategy and ultimately growing the brand in the competitive European market.

My role at Cult remains in the trading/ecom area; we’re responsible for all site updates, where we work closely with the comms, copy and design teams. We review how we can make optimisations across the site from a CVR and AOV perspective and ensure that trade/marketing plans are strong enough to hit our KPI targets for the month. Outside of this, we’re always on the lookout for new projects/initiatives we can implement on site to give Cult that competitive edge/point of difference. Gordon: Both my roles have been working in the finance teams so very numbers and excel heavy, I joined THG in July 2018 just after I finished my accounting chartership and I wanted a new challenge in a tech-based business. Over the last three years I have managed and developed the Beauty finance team from a small team of one direct report to more than six heads, I was involved in all areas of the business in ensuring we approached all decisions with a commercial and finance perspective and oversaw the month end, forecasting and budgeting process for the Beauty division. Moving over to Cult I will be working over very similar areas and covering all aspects of finance in the business with most of my focus on the inter departmental support and helping drive the business forward

What do you love most about it? What would you rather do without? Giorgia: I love that we work so closely with lots of departments which has made the integration piece much easier! No two days are the same which is great – the role is super-fast paced and always involves us getting stuck in new projects/initiatives. The only downside is that we haven’t got enough hands-on deck to cover all areas that we’d like to, however we have a visual merchandiser and ecom executive joining the team in March which will support the team in our ability to be more reactive/optimise more areas of the site. Gordon: What I love most about my role is the pace and variety in the work I get involved with – no two weeks are the same and the requests are always different which comes with challenges but makes it exciting and fresh. I enjoy challenging people on decisions and there thinking to make them step back and review processes/ BAU practices, so we achieve the best possible outcome for the business. Things I would rather do without would probably be payment issues and the headaches that come with being overdue (too real) Tell us something most people don’t know about you?

Giorgia: Most people don’t know that I speak German – I studied it at Uni for four years along side business management and spent a placement year in Vienna working in logistics. Gordon: Was interviewed on Newsnight recently – claim to fame. It was about trains so not very exciting.

Want to play a pivotal part of our CULTure? We have a strong and unique culture at Cult Beauty. One that is built on our mission to be the most trusted beauty retailer in the world. It thrives on a strong team spirit, a passion for beauty and each other and two way communication. Central to keeping this culture thriving are two internal working groups: The Campaigns Committee and the CULTure Collective both teams are looking for new members. The Campaigns Committee was formed out of a desire to gather broader perspectives and experiences from across the business and reflect these in our marketing communications. To highlight potential blind spots and ask ourselves critical questions to ensure we are being as inclusive as we can be within our operating limitations. CULTure Collective is our employee committee and a chance for you to represent your team, share invaluable insights and experience and be part of making positive change and delivering cultural initiatives at Cult Beauty. To find out more about either team please contact Alicia Hickey.

MARCH

MON

TUE

WED

Milk BOTM

International Womens Day

Loyalty Launch TBC

Mini Make up Goody bag Launch

THUR

FRI

SAT

St Patrick's Day

SUN

First Day Of Spring

27 Mother's Day

Trans Day Of Visibility

Calendar of Events MON

APRIL

TUE

WED

THUR

FRI 1

SAT

Stress Awareness Month

Start of Ramandan

SUN 3

Good Friday

Easter Monday

Passover

Bengali New Year

Lesbian Visibility Day

MAY MON

TUE

WED

MAY DAY

Mental Health Mental Health Awareness Awareness Week Week

THUR

FRI

SAT

SUN

1 4

Mental Health Awareness Week

Promotions! We would like to take a moment to reflect and celebrate the internal movement and progression over the past six months and celebrate our team members who have progressed their careers here at Cult. Something that we are proud to be able to do.

Promotions:

Change in Role/Department

If you are looking for a new challenge internally, please keep an eye on our careers page for our active vacancies!

Social & Charity Update We are on the lookout for someone to join our Social & Charity team to be our new Treasure . If this sounds like you or something you would we interested in, we would love to hear from you! Email socialandcharity@cultbeauty.co.uk to find out more!

A reminder of your team charities for 2022: St Mungos Refuge Young Lives for Cancer If you would like to use your charity day with colleagues or to support any of the above charities please reach out to socialandcharity@cultbeauty.co.uk

Upcoming Initiatives PRIDE MONTH🏳‍🌈 Last year you voted to get behind Pride Month and this year we want to go big. We would like 8-10 people to have an initial discussion and brainstorm ideas on ways we can build awareness as well as celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community. Those with a lived experience as well as those who do not identify as LGBTQIA+ are welcome to share ideas. The deadline to participate is April 1st. We will then arrange a meeting (approx one hour) to gather ideas. If you are interested in joining the working group, please enter your details here

In-Person Activities We want to start introducing in person activities as people are starting to come back in the office. We believe this is a great way to team build and have some fun! We would love to know what activities you would be most interested in participating in. Please click here to vote and also submit suggestions by April 1st.

More Trees: Courtesy of Advent 2o21

Sales of the advent calendar resulted in us planting 15,472 trees. After a brief consultation with the CULTure Collective the following location was chosen as it had the most varied benefits. Bullengarook, Penicuik, Midlothian, Scotland: The planting is predominantly native broadleaf trees with a small amount of conifers. The aim of the woodland is to increase biodiversity on the Bullengarook farm whilst also providing shelter for livestock through the creation of four shelter woodland blocks. These woodlands will also act as a carbon sink and buffer between farmland and the Hawlawmuir Burn, helping to improve water quality. The woodlands will be managed primarily as a natural wildlife habitat, and as such intervention will be minimal following maintenance to guarantee establishment.

You can learn more about More Trees and their global projects here.

Get in touch You can contact your team representative directly by email, have a call, chat or you can email the group on: Info.culturecollective@cultbeauty.co.uk

A reminder of your reps...

BUYING Bessie ( Priority Action Lead) Hayley (Treasurer) CONTENT + PERFORMANCE MARKETING Vic (Priority Action Lead) Lydia ( Priority Action Lead) Korede (Priority Action Lead) Julia (Comms Lead) CULT CONCIERGE Marta (Events Lead) HR Iram (Events Lead)

CRM Denise (Deputy Chair) FINANCE + ALL Alicia (Chair) MERCHANDISING Janine (Secretary Wonu (Priority Action Lead)