SLG completes ambitious three-brand acquisition as USA expansion accelerates

Published by

Nicky Godding

Global beauty brand innovator SLG has bought three high street brands - Amie Naturally Kind Skincare, Johnny’s Chop Shop Grooming and COLAB Dry Shampoo as the company increases its portfolio of wholly-owned brand assets.

The three deals amount to an investment of more than £15 million.

SLG Brands, established in 1985, has evolved from contract manufacturer to an award-winning multi-category brand innovator and global brand builder. The Cheltenham-headquartered company, has one of the most creative office and studio spaces in the UK, which includes integrated studios, brand development and and R&D laboratory.

SLG received £10 million from BGF (Business Growth Fund), the UK and Ireland’s most active investor in growing businesses, in 2015, to support new product development and brand incubation. BGF invested a further £10 million in 2018 to accelerate SLG’s US expansion plans.

SLG’s CEO Miles Dunkley said: “We are focussed on continuous brand innovation and global growth whilst looking to take greater ownership and control of the brands that we create, operate and build. Both COLAB and Johnny’s Chop Shop have been acquired to fulfil these goals.

“This approach is paralleled with seeking out strategically compatible acquisition targets such as Amie Skincare where we perceive vast untapped commercial potential and clear market trend relevance.”

Amie Skincare is an award-winning British brand founded in 2008 and offers “naturally kind” skincare solutions particularly suited to consumers in their teens and twenties. It contains 95% natural ingredients.

Amie has retailed in the UK market since its launch in 2008 and is currently listed in Waitrose together with other territories around the world. It also has a busy direct to consumer website.

SLG’s Chief Commercial Officer, Lucy Beresford added: "Amie is an exciting, relevant and highly scalable addition to SLG’s brand portfolio.

We are particularly attracted to Amie’s ‘natural’ brand DNA and its authentic backstory of being created by a mother for her daughter.”

The recent acquisitions come at a time when SLG Brands is exploiting the opportunity that exists in the USA, where the company is gaining rapid traction with leading retailers. These include Target, Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, having secured over 10,000 new retail distribution points from January 2020.

Johnny’s Chop Shop was launched in 2016 – a barbershop chain in London and New York and a hair styling and beard grooming brand with distribution in Boots in the UK and Walmart, CVS and Walgreens in the USA. The brand is now located in 15 countries.

COLAB Dry Shampoo was launched in 2014 and is distributed in masstige* retail in 30 countries and across 15,000 shops.

Lucy added: “SLG is the co-creator of both COLAB and Johnny’s Chop Shop and under our management, both brands have experienced significant growth in recent years. We are poised to scale substantially in the years ahead and this is especially so in the USA where we will be distributed in over 10,000 doors by the turn of the year. It was the right time to acquire them into the SLG portfolio and continue the growth journey with full ownership.”

*masstige: Prestige goods for the mass market

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.