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feature
More than
Skin
deep Esse Organic Skincare has been providing all-African, all-organic skin care solutions to South Africa for ten years. Jane Bordenave speaks to founder Trevor Steyn to find out what drove him to create this unique business and where he is taking it from here.
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Esse Organic Skincare FEATURE
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sse Organic Skincare has been selling its products to South African spas and salons since 2000. The company prides itself on its ethics and its products are all certified organic, cruelty free and fair trade. As well as selling to the domestic market, the firm has also made inroads in the US, Netherlands and, most recently, Japan. It makes its own products, which are then sold to spas and salons for use in treatments and for their customers to purchase. Company founder Trevor Steyn established Esse after working as a research chemist at the University of Kwazulu-Natal, where he was studying the properties of indigenous
African plants, “we had been working with some traditional healers, who pointed us in the direction of plants with medicinal properties,” he says, “the research we then carried out backed up what the they had said and I realised that there were some species that had an application in cosmetics and beauty. I started looking at how I could use the expertise I had gained while doing research to set up a business.” Over the years, the company’s ethics base has grown to incorporate new concerns and developments. Trevor had decided right from the outset that the company would provide organic cosmetics but at that time, while there was official certification for organic food, there was nothing outside of that. Over time, however, there have been big leaps forward in this area, “at first we weren’t certified because there were no internationally accepted standards. However, in 2003 Ecocert entered into South Africa and we became certified by them,” says Mr Steyn, “since then, we have been accredited by Beauty Without Cruelty, meaning neither we nor any of our suppliers use animal testing, we are an accredited good partner with PhytoTrade Africa (a Fair Trade organisation) and we are endorsed by the Vegan Society, as we use no animal products.” What makes Esse unique is not just that it is a manufacturer of organic cosmetics, it is the only organic www.southafricamag.com
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Esse Organic Skincare FEATURE
company that has focussed solely on the professional beauty industry, “while there are many other brands that sell beauty products to the spa and salon industries we are the only ones that offer a complete range of certified organic professional products. We also offer an opportunity for consumers to contribute toward poverty alleviation in Africa,” says Mr Steyn. This ‘African’ element of the business is also a key unique selling point on its own, but when combined with its organic and social responsibility facets is probably the most important point of difference the firm has. Mr Steyn does not believe in allowing the company’s ethical credentials to stagnate.
While it is already in step with trends regarding toxicity, the drive towards more natural products and ethical business, there is what he describes as a “competing trend” in the shape of carbon neutrality. Believing that, like organic products, the popularity of carbon neutrality is unlikely to be a flash in the pan, Esse has already set about becoming a carbon neutral business. “We’ve carried out two audits so far to help us to reduce our carbon footprint. As things stand we are already doing quite well,” says Mr Steyn, “We source most of our ingredients locally so raw material transit is not a major factor. However, when it comes to exporting our products overseas, there really is no option but to airfreight due to the fact we don’t use conventional preservatives. So the only solution has been to purchase carbon credits.” There is one change that the carbon audit has enabled the company to make – it now recycles its own glass, “we have always packaged our products in glass as it is a widely recycled
Over the next five years the company is hoping to increase its presence in other receptive markets Trevor Steyn
material. But from our carbon audit it became clear that our old system, where we were potentially buying back our own glass in recycled form, didn’t make much sense” explains Mr Steyn, “so we looked into recovering the
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packaging from the customer and processing the bottles and tubs ourselves. We found that this would have multiple benefits, reducing both carbon emissions and cost. We are able to pass these savings back to our customers, providing free products as an incentive to return the packaging to us.” As a supplier of luxury product, Mr Steyn was prepared for the company to take a hit during the recession and for sales to fall. The result was not as expected, “our turnover actually doubled,” laughs Mr Steyn, “Looking back we feel that there were two reasons for this: Firstly - when consumers were put under financial pressure they looked more carefully at their purchases and shifted towards brands offering value for money and secondly it was easier to “downgrade” to an organic brand than to an conventional brand”. Looking forward, the company is already company is hoping to increase its presence developing new markets and new products. in other receptive markets. Esse also has scatters oil qtr ad3.indd 1 Recently, it signed a deal with a distribution high hopes for new products that aim to company in Japan, rebalance the skin’s which it expects to natural fauna in order grow into its largest to solve problems, market within the and plans to increase next few years, “Japan the outsourcing work is well ahead of the done by its research rest of the world and development when it comes to its department. A long, appreciation of organic but unsurprising list and natural beauty for a company that is products,” says Mr constantly evolving Steyn, “at the retail and exploring new end, whole floors of ways to benefit its department stores are customers while sometimes dedicated maintaining its to these products. It ethical roots. With is what you might call a ‘pre-educated’ people becoming increasingly interested in market, because the general population natural and environmentally friendly ways are already aware of the benefits of these of life Esse Organic Skin Care will be top products so they don’t need the same kind of the list for people looking to ensure that of explicative promotion as they do here in the appeal of their beauty products is more South Africa.” Over the next five years the than skin deep. END
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While there are many other brands that sell beauty products to the spa and salon industries we are the only ones that offer a complete range of certified organic professional products
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