French lessons from Wellington

Trilogy founders Catherine Wells, left, and Sarah Gibbs try out their products. Picture / Mark Mitchell

Last week was a particularly good one for natural skin care company Trilogy Botanicals set up by Wellington sisters Sarah Gibbs and Catherine Wells.

The good news started on Monday night when the sisters received an export order from Printemps, the chain of French department stores.

Two days later, Gibbs was named young accountant of the year for the central region by the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

And then proving that good luck comes in threes, on Thursday night Trilogy picked up the emerging exporter of the year at the ANZ Wellington Exporter of the Year Awards.

All of which is not bad going for a company whose products first hit retail shelves in December 2002.

The idea to set up Trilogy came from Gibbs' experience working for Super Critical Extraction - a supplier of raw ingredients for the international cosmetics and natural products market that Gibbs set up with her father in 1998.

In 2001, Wells - a former fashion and beauty journalist - came on board to research the potential of rosehip seed oil, one of the ingredients that Super Critical Extraction had been producing.

"Catherine and I decided we should be adding value in New Zealand rather than just shipping bulk product overseas," says Gibbs.

Since it was set up in 2002, Trilogy has achieved rapid growth to the point where the sisters estimate retail sales this year should amount to about $8 million.

Trilogy produces 12 skin-care products, including moisturisers, cleansers, defoliants and masks.

The ingredients are derived from plant oils, extracts and other natural sources. Rosehip oil is one of Trilogy's biggest sellers and is also an ingredient in many of its products.

The key to Trilogy's success has been keeping staff numbers to a minimum and outsourcing most parts of the business. "We're mainly a product formulation and branding company," says Wells.

Trilogy's products are manufactured by a cosmetics laboratory in Auckland.

"We work closely with the lab to develop new products," says Wells.

Sales are also handled by specialist teams in different market sectors.

Trilogy has only six full-time staff - four in New Zealand and two in Australia - although it also employs trainers part-time to educate retail salespeople about its products.

Exports account for about half of sales.

The markets are Australia, Britain, the United States (where Trilogy is in about 50 high-end stores) and, by the end of the year, France.

Gibbs sees most potential in the United States and in Asia.

Next year, she expects the company to achieve 50 per cent growth and for exports to account for about 70 per cent of sales.

Wells says her journalism background has been invaluable in marketing Trilogy.

She does the local PR herself, focusing on building relationships with fashion and beauty editors to generate editorial cover.

In overseas markets, Trilogy uses PR firms and favours low-key relationship building with media.

"We've literally been able to generate million of dollars' worth of free editorial," says Wells.

Better skin

* Trilogy produces 12 skin-care products

* Retail sales this year should amount to $8 million

* Exports account for about half the sales

* Overseas markets are Australia, the UK, US and, later this year, France

* Staff numbers are kept to a minimum