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AUGUST 2009 | the market
Consumer markets
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ifes2good is one of a
small band of Irish
companies, outside
the food and drinks
business, that has managed
to get a foothold in consumer
markets around the world. Its
main targets are the big three:
the UK, North America and
mainland Europe. However,
during trade missions last year,
Lifes2good announced wins
further afield, including a €3m
deal distribution in China
and a €5million deal in Brazil
and Mexico. The company
has also bagged business
worth €2m in South Korea,
has customers in Kuwait and
Lebanon and is now targeting
Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
“Initially, we go in with
our hero product – which is
our [female] hair loss product,
Viviscal,” says CEO and founder
James Murphy. “Then we
would bolt on other products.”
These include nutrition
supplements for skin care,
pain management and weight
management.
“Up until the end of 2007,
we were really a distribution company, successfully distributing
brands belonging to other people in a number of countries,” he
says. However, difficulties with an overseas partner got the business
into hot water and convinced Murphy the best way to avoid getting
into that situation again was to buy the original business in that
category. “It meant we became a brand owner as well as a marketer
and we also took over the contract manufacturing, so we had to
look at where the raw materials were being purchased and to make
sure GMP [good manufacturing practice] and quality systems were
in place, in addition to going out to register and re-register the
brands in countries all over the world.”
“We have brought
back quite a bit of the
manufacturing to Ireland.
The hair loss tablets are
still being made in Finland,
but we are doing all the
blistering packaging in
Ireland. We have also brought
back the manufacturing
of a lot of the weight-loss
tablets,” Murphy says.
dual approaCh
Lifes2good combines direct
sales via the internet with
retail sales, and Murphy
insists that the relationship
i