ASX-listed company BWX has snapped up a controlling stake in beauty entrepreneur and young rich lister Zoë Foster Blake’s business Go-To Skincare in an $89 million deal.
BWX scooped up 50.1 percent of Go-To with the deal valuing the business, which sells its range of moisturizers, face masks and bubble bath online and through Mecca stores, at $177 million.
Ms Foster Blake started Go-To in 2014 and the business has boomed during the coronavirus pandemic, recording revenue of $38 million last year as consumers treated themselves with skincare products. She owns a stake in the business.
She started her career writing a beauty column at Cosmopolitan. Ms Foster Blake is the author of several books including The Wrong Girl and No One Likes A Fart and headed up Australia’s most recent tourism campaign with her husband, comedian Hamish Blake.
Ms Foster Blake drew on her beauty expertise to found Go-To and garnered a loyal customer base through savvy use of her extensive social media following.
The peach packaged brand has expanded to include Gro-To, plant-based skincare for babies and Bro-To, which is marketed to boys and men and has expanded internationally into the United States.
Go-To will remain a standalone brand with Ms Foster Blake as strategic shareholder, chief creative officer and board director of Go-To and the company’s other co-founders will also remain in the partnership.
Ms Foster Blake said two Australian beauty companies coming together to cement Australia’s reputation in the sector was “very exciting” and would accelerate Go-To’s growth internationally.
“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,” she said. “BWX immediately made sense. They live and breathe skincare and have a proven track record globally.”
BWX already owns the Sukin, Andalou Naturals, Mineral Fusion, and Nourished Life brands and in its full-year results on Friday reported a 61 percent lift in net profit to $23.7 million for the year and a 3 percent increase in revenue to $194.1 million.
BWX chief executive Dave Fenlon said Go-To was an authentic brand with a loyal customer following and an exciting growth outlook.
“Zoë is a proven brand-builder and innovator,” he said.
“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.”