KMI Brands celebrates its 30th Anniversary – 30 years of knowledge, meaning and inspiration. 30 years of living life beautifully.
KMI Brands, creator of beauty and wellbeing brands (Noughty, Ted Baker Perfumes and Toiletries and Plantopia) celebrates its 30-year anniversary this month. Established in 1993 by Herbie Dayal who co-founded King of Shaves, KMI Brands has come a long way.
With a mission to create unique beauty and wellbeing brands with purpose and uncompromising experience, whilst enhancing the lives of global communities and protecting the planet every step of the way, KMI Brands unites and develops beauty and wellbeing brands under license as well as its own portfolio of brands. The portfolio currently includes Noughty Hair and Body Care, Ted Baker Perfumes, Toiletries and Cosmetics and Plantopia.
It covers a range of categories: hair and body care, fragrance, cosmetics, grooming, skincare and wellness. One of the fastest-growing British beauty businesses, KMI Brands has achieved world-wide distribution across its portfolio in over 21 countries, stocking 10,600 doors globally. The company currently manufactures and distributes over 130 products across its brands.
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
KMI Brands is Ted Baker’s longest license partnership. It was established in 1988 and is now sold in 13 global markets. With design-led, bespoke floral fragrances which are bottled in Britain and a range of toiletries and cosmetic gifting sets, the brand currently has a sales growth of c.44% vs 2021.
Noughty was launched in 2016 and co-founded by now CEO of KMI Brands, Rachel Parsonage. The brand has achieved over 53 awards and has over 37,000 5-star customer reviews on lovenoughty.com* It’s currently stocked in 18 countries, it’s plastic-neutral and the brand has collected 81,612kg of plastic-waste through its partnership with CleanHub. It has an average annual global sales growth of 59% year on year since launch.
* Average rating of 4.7 stars, source lovenoughty.com across UK and USA.
Within a year of launching Plantopia, the holistic wellbeing brand with a range of body and skin care products as well as food supplements has launched exclusively with sephora.co.uk and has already won multiple awards. By working with Ocean Waste Plastic, Plantopia removes the same amount of plastic from the ocean as used in their packaging* to protect oceans, future generations, and marine wildlife. Plantopia has already removed 6,057KG of plastic from the oceans. That’s the equivalent of removing 611,818 standard plastic water bottles.
* Source: Cision, May – December 2022. See each product page packaging information for full details on plantopialife.com
“KMI is rightly proud of its rich heritage and achievements over the last 30 years. To have a 30-year history of sales and profit growth is a huge achievement to celebrate” says Herbie Dayal, Chairman and Founder of KMI Brands.
With a commitment to people, planet and paws, KMI Brands has identified four key focus areas to work on, inspired by the UN Sustainability Development Goals.
“Our commitment to Living Life Beautifully defines our sustainability agenda to support and protect People & Planet. This also acts as a compass for our employees, our suppliers, and our partners, outlining KMI Brands measurable agenda and holds us accountable for progress and action,” says Rachel Parsonage, CEO of KMI Brands.
PLANET
The health and protection of our planet is vital for future generations. We strive to improve the impact of our everyday activities through the entire value chain.
ECO-SYSTEMS
We take bold action to preserve our ecosystems precious resources and biodiversity by embracing planet-friendly practices and environmental sourcing initiatives.
CIRCULARITY
This is critical for the future for all resources. We will lead a revolution with consumers, giving them the knowledge to empower and push for better choices
PEOPLE
People sit at the heart of our business. We support and develop our employees, and partner with consultants, representatives, and sourcing communities with shared values
Along with this, KMI Brands is proud to be joining B-Corp’s UK’s global movement soon for change as part of a promise to uphold the highest standards of ethics and transparency. Joining the 5000-strong community of like-minded businesses means we’ll be taking measurable steps towards a more inclusive, equitable and regenerative economy.
“I am so proud to confirm KMI Brands have submitted their B Corp assessment and to be part of this amazing journey. It has taken 12 months to work through the assessment ensuring we meet the strict standards of B Corp – balancing profit with people and planet. We look forward to continuing the B Corp journey,” says Victoria Cushing, Product Director
“At KMI we have taken pause to really consider and reflect on the impact we have on the industry and how we want to move forward and be known – adopting better measures, controls and thoughts on materials, where we source them and how we use them. We no longer see waste, but we see resource, opportunity and innovation,” says Dan Coppins, Packaging Technologist and QC Manager
As a member of the British Beauty Council, KMI Brands is extremely proud to have Product Director Victoria Cushing join the Advisory Committee of their Sustainable Beauty Coalition, again putting the company at the forefront of some of the most important conversations of our times – from solutions to sustainability challenges and new standards to consumer education and the role of technology. Together, we look forward to proactively collaborating with other bodies to coordinate and accelerate the beauty industry response to sustainability.
WHAT IS KMI COMMITTED TO ACHIEVING NEXT?
“The company has ambitious goals and focuses on continuing to act as an industry leader by setting exceptional standards across everything we do. We look forward to building global communities with our current brand portfolio as well as future brands we develop, all of which are and will be designed with purpose in mind and a clear mission to sustain and enhance life on this planet,” says Herbie Dayal, Chairman and Founder of KMI Brands.
- 100% Plastic Neutral by 2025
- Working throughout the industry to drive change from large raw ingredient suppliers to farmer level with investment in 10 regeneration projects at a farmer level by 2030
- 20% less packaging (in weight) by 2030
- Zero Waste to landfill by 2030
- Traceability of KMI’s whole supply chain by 2030
- All packaging material to be recyclable or compostable by 2030
- 95%+ biodegradable formulas by 2030
- Net Zero GHG emissions by 2050
“To be able to celebrate this significant milestone is a testament to KMI’s commitment to the industry. Connecting and engaging with great people is crucial to our ability to grow and thrive, whether that be suppliers and partners who share our ambitions and values, or our wonderful KMI team on the ground who strive for being the best they can be and making change happen.
I believe it’s a huge privilege to be a leader in a business and my role is to give people a place to grow, be their true authentic selves and find commonality in what we are trying to achieve together. Our journey to B Corp certification only enhances this and holding ourselves accountable with measures and transparent actions attracts like-minded people. People who want to belong and be part of a business they can be proud of.
I would personally like to thank everyone who has been on the journey with us and particularly to our suppliers who have supported us tirelessly along the way.”
Rachel Parsonage, CEO KMI Brands
