Simple Health & Beauty Group Limited is a skincare and toiletries business based in the West Midlands, UK. It owns Simple – the UK’s pre-eminent brand of skincare and toiletries products developed especially for sensitive skin. The group also owns the Cidal and Wright’s soap brands.
The business was acquired by US based international personal care and household brand business Alberto Culver in December 2009. Prior to this, Simple had been in private equity ownership following a June 2000 MBO from Smith & Nephew plc led by CEO Geoff Percy and FD Peter Hatherly.
Simple is ranked the UK’s No.1 facial skincare brand in units and No.2 in value. Over the last five years, it has delivered annual growth 2.5 times that of the market as a whole.
The group continues to grow strongly. Organisationally, it has been transformed from a multi-site manufacturing business in 2000 to an entrepreneurial brand owner, with its manufacturing and logistics activities having been outsourced to a number of partner suppliers in the UK and Europe.
Employing just 60 people at its headquarters in Solihull, UK, Simple’s key markets are in the UK and Republic of Ireland. An increasingly strong position in parts of Scandinavia is further supplemented by a number of distributorships in many regions of the world.
Conscious of the growing environmental agenda, the group takes its responsibilities seriously. It is undergoing a full lifecycle analysis of its products and an evaluation of its operations in order to put in place measures that, over time, will meet its customers’ and consumers’ expectations in terms of sustainability.
