With high-profile fans across Hollywood, Bollywood and K-Pop, Gold Coast clean beauty brand Skin O2 has experienced major growth since taking part in Trade & Investment Queensland’s Go Global Export Program.

The story of Skin O2 plays like an Australian small business fairytale: Gold Coast husband and wife develop product, roll it out to medical clinics, department stores and pharmacies, win celebrity adoration and land deals in Vietnam, India and beyond. The happy ending? A dramatic increase in exporting revenue from $200k just a few years ago, to a forecast of $10 million this year.

But it wasn’t a fairy godmother who turned Skin O2 into a global exporting powerhouse and a key figure in the clean beauty revolution. Like most cult brands, it started with a great idea to solve a specific problem – and the right partners on that journey.

Starting small on the Gold Coast

Running a cosmetic surgery and skin cancer treatment clinic, Dr Aaron Atia and Alison Atia were seeing the problem up close, every day.

“We treated a lot of skin diseases and disorders, mostly recovering from aesthetic treatments and skin cancer therapy,” Alison, Skin O2 CEO and co-founder tells Kochie’s Business Builders. “We found there was a real gap in the market with being able to treat and protect their skin after the treatments, but without any irritation.”

In 2005, Skin O2 was born – long before clean beauty became beauty industry buzzwords. The range of doctor-formulated skincare and makeup products were designed to address specific skin concerns like ageing, acne and general skin health. As well as being free of synthetic fragrances and irritating toxic ingredients, the products are vegan, cruelty-free and dermatologically tested.

The Atias knew their solution wouldn’t take off without the right distribution channels and partners. They worked with medical colleagues and dermatologists to stock the products in thousands of clinics around the country.

“Then it just organically grew globally with celebrity doctors using it,” says Alison. “We have thank you notes from stars like Victoria Beckham and all these crazy things that we never imagined.”

 

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The first steps to going global

While bestsellers like their multivitamin B, A, C and E moisturiser are used everywhere from Hollywood to Bollywood today, their exporting success didn’t just happen overnight.

“It has been a really long journey,” Alison explains. “It was over nine years ago. We were inundated with lots of clinics wanting to stock our products but just weren’t in a position to go global then.”

When a doctor to K-Pop stars approached them about stocking their products, Skin O2 dipped their toes into their first international territory, one of the leading beauty markets in the world, South Korea.

A major turning point came when Alison and Aaron reached out to Trade & Investment Queensland (TIQ) for help with expanding to Vietnam.

“It’s really thanks to the Go Global Export Program (GGEP) that we’ve been able to put all of that action into place, with strategic partnerships and government support,” Alison says.

The Go Global Export Program gives small and medium-sized Queensland export-ready businesses funding and support to overcome specific challenges when entering a new international market. The program, which is currently open for applications until September 11, offers matched funding up to $25,000 (excluding GST), for this purpose.

When applying for the program, Skin O2 identified a number of challenges in the Vietnamese market, including the need to adapt their packaging. “It’s quite different to Australia. Vietnam is very security conscious, so we had to adapt the pack to still be eco-friendly, but have security tagging on it,” Alison explains.

They also needed to reformulate the products to better suit Vietnamese consumers and ingredient regulations.

“What they need and how they perceive beauty is different, so we had to make sure we met those standards culturally and with the accepted ingredients,” she says. “It costs money and we needed guidance from people who’ve done that before… to be able to turn it around quickly to make the market.”

Having the right export documentation was another layer on top of it all. “With each country you need to meet the market. So you need to do whatever the regulations are,” Alison adds. “If you have a support program to go into specific markets, you can really adapt.”

The impact of the Go Global Export Program

The Skin O2 team on the Gold Coast (Alison and Aaron, centre). Image: Supplied.

The Go Global Export Program’s support was invaluable for the Skin O2 team when launching in Vietnam.

That paved the way for even bigger prospects in India. Skin O2 recently inked a three-year deal with India’s largest luxury brand market leader, Baccarose, to have their products sold across high-end beauty retail stores in mall and airports across India. They’ve started rolling out across 750 premium clinics as well.

“TIQ were really our expert team in India helping us secure that deal right from the beginning, from business matching introductions,” Alison says. “It’s made the biggest difference for us.”

The India deal has helped grow Skin O2’s full-time workforce by 40 per cent at their Gold Coast facility, while their broader regional Queensland business partners are also expanding their workforces to support Skin O2’s increased production.

How your business can follow Skin O2’s lead

Skin O2 is currently in discussions and negotiations across various markets in the Middle East, Asia, Europe and North America, with TIQ’s ongoing support.

And if you’re ready to export a product or service beyond our shores, your business could be next.

“The biggest thing is to make sure you’re doing well in the current market, first of all,” Alison advises. “And that you have high-quality products, especially if you justify the price being from Australia and so remote.

“Take advantage of things like the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA). There’s also lots of government courses that help you with getting export-ready, so when you do apply for the Go Global Export Program you have the most chance of getting it.”

Applications for the current round of TIQ’s Go Global Export Program close on September 11. Get in quick!

This article is brought to you by Startup Daily in partnership with Trade & Investment Queensland.