Fresh approach brings lush result

Andrew Gerrie says Lush tries to do without packaging. Picture / Paul Estcourt

Andrew Gerrie doesn't look like your average chief executive, he's far too relaxed.

Perhaps it's because he's on holiday or maybe it's because he's the boss of bath and body company Lush, a business famous for its hippy philosophy and love of the environment.

Wellington-born Gerrie, a Kiwi who went on his OE and "forgot to come home", became involved in the beauty business because he wanted a product to bring home to build a business on.

That never quite happened.

Instead, Gerrie stayed in the UK and met the crew of Cosmetics To Go, a mail-order business that also supplied The Body Shop with various products such as soaps and shower gels.

Cosmetics To Go later folded and sold its formulas to The Body Shop and the crew later founded Lush together with Gerrie.

They started out small, opening their first shop in Dorset in 1995, then Covent Garden and Kings Rd in London.

The company now has 680 stores in 44 countries, with plans to open 100 more by the beginning of 2015.

This is an ambitious goal for the company that would need to increase its size by 47 per cent to achieve the milestone, a number that would still only make it a third of the size of The Body Shop.

Last year, Lush brought in £270 million ($595 million) globally from selling fragrance-infused soaps, glitter covered bath bombs and shampoo bars.

Lush owns its own formulas, manufactures and packages all its products, which is uncommon in the beauty world.

"We're a vegetarian company. A lot of our products are vegan," Gerrie said. "Our products are fresh. We want to be like a bakery, limited packaging and fresh. Some shops in the UK, especially over Christmas, where there is a large turnover of products have fresh products on the shelf everyday."

He said most cosmetic products were a year old by the time they were bought, which meant they needed to contain a lot of preservatives to make them last even before they were purchased.

Many of Lush's products do not contain preservatives, on average the products that do contain about 27 per cent, a number the company is continuously trying to reduce.

"Lush does away with a lot of packaging. Packaging is the most expensive part of putting a product together. The shampoo bar ($15 for less than 100g) is the equivalent of three [250ml] bottles. You get 80 washes from the bar and there are no plastic bottles, and limited preservatives going down the drain and into our waterways.

"The less we spend on packaging, the more we can spend on the content of the products."

Lush worked for almost a year to create palm oil free soap, and although the soap lathers a little less, it cleans just as well, the company claims.

Gerrie said many companies used synthetic ingredients in their products to reduce cost.

Lush spends a lot of time and money sourcing real ingredients for its products, but customers pay for that privilege.

A 200g soap bar on average will sell for $18, with a similar amount for a peach-flavoured massage bar.

The new Turkish Delight shower soap that contains about 20,000 real rose petals retails for $39.90.

Top-selling products in New Zealand include karma, porridge and rock star soap, dream cream moisturiser, $36.90 for 240g, and sex bomb ballistic.

Gerrie said despite the shop's colourful and playful image, a lot of people worked very hard to design and make sustainable products from sustainable sources.

"I hope when people look behind the hippy facade of the business, they see a professional [operation]. We work really hard to get it right.

"I think that's what most businesses want. They are genuinely interested in creating a vision.

"I never thought Lush would become this big."

Growth plan
* Lush started out small in Dorset in 1995.
* It now has 680 stores in 44 countries, including eight in NZ.
* It plans to open 100 more in the next five years.
* Last year it had revenue of $595 million.