Category Archives: Industry News

18/10/2016 · 09:23

Natural Cosmetics Conference 2016: [Show Report]

From 27th to 28th September 2016 the annual Naturkosmetikbranchenkongress (Natural Cosmetics Conference) took place here in Berlin.

This year, the conference focused on digitalization and its effect on the consumer: how the constantly growing connectivity is changing our society and altering consumer behavior and consumer expectations. The digital world is transforming existing retail structures, market dynamics and brand management, but it also creates exciting new opportunities for companies, brands and consumers. Excellent presentations, a great keynote speaker and interesting panelists and attendees made this one of my favourite Branchenkongress events so far.

Click on the link below for a review of the conference. Be warned though, this is one of my longer reports (I had my laptop with me so my notes are very detailed indeed)!

branchenkongress-2016_pics-2

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05/09/2016 · 08:22

Retail notes from Tallinn: [Store Profile] Pillerkaar

During my weekend in Helsinki I also visited Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. From Helsinki, Tallinn is just 2-3 hours by ferry and there are hourly connections so it is the perfect day trip. It was my first visit to Estonia and after walking around the beautiful Old Town for a bit, I started on my must-visit list of local retailers, including a Stockmann outlet, a couple of supermarket chains and, most importantly, a store specialising in organic beauty: Pillerkaar!

Tallinn_Pillerkaar (1)

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31/08/2016 · 09:20

Retail notes from Helsinki: [Store Profile] Ruohonjuuri

One of the retailers on my must-see list in Helsinki was organic supermarket chain Ruohonjuuri. Ruohonjuuri (the name translates as “grass roots”) is one of Finland’s organic food retail pioneers; their first store in Helsinki was opened in 1982. Today Ruohonjuuri has five stores in Helsinki and four outlets in other Finnish cities; they also operate an online store.

I had googled Ruohonjuuri prior to my trip and decided to visit their flagship store on Salomonkatu 5 in Helsinki’s Kamppii district: a very large and beautiful retail space, vis-à-vis from Kampii metro station. The store offers an extensive selection of fresh and dried organic foods, fruit and vegetables, frozen and chilled products and a spectacular organic beauty department, plus a treatment room where you can book a variety of face and beauty treatments.

Helsinki_Ruohonjuuri (28)

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12/08/2016 · 13:37

Company Profile: Coop Switzerland

A few months ago I researched and wrote a company profile on Swiss supermarket chain Coop for one of my magazine projects. In the end, we decided not to use the Coop piece; so here it is (updated and annotated!). Coop is an interesting retailer: like its competitor Migros, the company has very strong position in the Swiss food market – basically, there is Migros (market leader) and Coop and that’s pretty much it as far as supermarket chains are concerned. At least in German Switzerland.

During my article research I noticed how closely  Coop’s brand line-up reflects current food trends: over the past few years, the company has added a number of organic, regional and vegetarian own label brands. And this June, Coop signed a distribution agreement with Berlin-based vegan supermarket chain Veganz. Another interesting project is Coop’s new market place Siroop.ch, the first online store in Switzerland to offer products from local, regional and international manufacturers on one retail platform. For more information on Siroop, scroll down the article!

Zürich (23)

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22/07/2016 · 10:47

OWN: A special edition for Natural Products Asia 2016 trade show

The latest issue of Organic & Wellness News has just gone online: we have published an e-paper with Asia-specific content on the occasion of Natural Products 2016 trade show which will take place in Hong Kong this August. I contributed two articles: an interview with industry expert Mei Graefe on the cross-border e-commerce business in mainland China and an interview with Brenda Lee, founder of Hong Kong’s biggest organic perfumery chain Beyorg. Enjoy!

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13/07/2016 · 16:40

Retail notes from Szczecin: [Store Profile] Vegananda

A few days ago I spent the day in Szczecin (or “Stettin”,  as it is called in German), a city in Poland which is located very close to the country’s border with Germany. From Berlin, Stettin is an easy day trip (the direct train takes just 1 h 50 minutes!) so I like to visit every once in a while.

In this case I hadn’t been to Stettin for a couple of years so I used the opportunity to do some store checks (Rossmann, Douglas, Sephora, Hebe, Drogeria Natura, Dayli, Carrefour, Auchan), keeping an eye out for new beauty brands (organic and otherwise!) and also checking on the organic food situation while I was there.

On my recent trip to Budapest I had been surprised by the strong presence of Vegan and Paleo foods in the city (check out my store profile of Bio-Barát) so I was on the lookout for similar developments in Stettin. And I did find something interesting: Vegananda, a charming little Vegan store and café which was opened exactly a year ago.

Stettin, Vegananda (1)

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04/07/2016 · 10:47

OWN: The Summer 2016 edition is online

The Summer Edition of Organic & Wellness News has just been published: here is the link. I have contributed two articles – a review of Natural Products Europe 2016 trade show and a feature on the organic products market in Korea. Enjoy!

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19/05/2016 · 09:26

Triangle: Fermented Hydrogel Facial Mask (Whamisa), Pink Camellia Soombi Mask (Blossom Jeju) and Calendula Modeling Mask (Lindsay)

Here is another installment of the Triangle series. Today, I am looking at three popular face mask formats. Although all three companies are from Korea, they are as different as their product concepts: Whamisa is a certified organic niche brand, Blossom Jeju is a premium cosmetics brand from the island of Jeju and Lindsay is the salon face mask manufacturer who started the rubber mask hype in Korea.

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09/05/2016 · 07:36

Retail notes from Tokyo: [Brand Profile] Gofun from Ueba Esou

A few days ago I was walking through drugstore retailer Ainz & Tulpe’s Harajuku store when the fabulous retro-looking packaging of Ueba Esou’s Gofun nail polish range caught my eye. That very same day, in a different part of Tokyo, I saw Gofun again; this time in a store selling traditional Japanese handicrafts. Besides the Gofun polishes, the store also carries Ueba Esou’s hand cream range – less retro-looking but equally charming. I started to research the brand and guess what – Ueba Esou isn’t a cosmetics company at all: they are a Kyoto-based manufacturer of traditional Japanese artist paints.

Gofun (2)

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07/05/2016 · 00:55

Retail notes from Tokyo: [Store Profile] Its‘ Demo

I was walking around Shibuya today (my must-visit stores in this area include Cosmekitchen in Hikarie department store, the big Tokyu Hands and, of course, design depato Loft Shibuya!) and saw this interesting example of gender-specific retail: Its’ Demo is a fashion/beauty store chain aimed at an exclusively female demographic.

It's Demo 1

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