BWX – the global beauty and wellness company that owns brands like Sukin and Andalou Naturals – has bought a controlling stake in Zoë Foster Blake‘s cult brand Go-To Skincare for a very well-hydrated $89million.
Per the Sydney Morning Herald, the ASX-listed company took out a 50.1% stake in the Australian-born company this week, with the multinational company recognising that Go-To has a loyal customer base and is an authentic brand in the Aussie natural skincare market.
“Zoë is a proven brand-builder and innovator,” BWX chief executive Dave Fenlon told the SMH. (Duh, if you followed her since the Amazing Face days, you’d know this to be true as hell.)
“This partnership will provide BWX with an opportunity to accelerate our international growth strategy, increase our sales via the direct-to-consumer channel, while also providing access to a potential new growth customer demographic and exposure to a premium brand which complements our existing portfolio.”
In other, non-finance jargon words: Aussies overseas who rely on mates sending their Go-To top-ups via snail mail might just have an easier way to get their mitts on the next bottle of Face Hero.
Zoë went public with wanting to sell off a sizeable share of the Go-To brand – which includes the original line, plus masculine line ‘Bro-To’ and children’s product range ‘Gro-To’ – earlier this year, so the sale to BWX isn’t completely out of left-field.
The Financial Review confirmed that her move to offload a stake in the company is a strategic move to be the biggest skincare company in Australia, and was actively looking for someone who could “supercharge” the cult-fave, peach-coloured brand. Zoë is also working on plans to expand further into the US, with the online store already “showing plenty of promise”.
So teaming up with BWX, who owns natural brands at all levels from the local chemist to the bougie day spa, seems to be a very smart move for the Go-To brand, especially if the endgame is to be the biggest skincare company in Australia.
“When we embarked on this process we wanted a compatible-like minded partner who as culturally aligned, shared our values on sustainability, inclusivity and quality, really ‘got’ our brands, and who could assist in unlocking Go-To’s international potential,” Zoë said to the SMH.
“BWX immediately made sense. They live and breathe skin care and have a proven track record globally.”
So watch this space, and fingers crossed this means we can start spreading the goodness to our mates overseas soon, too.
