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Having already carved out its presence in the e-commerce space, hair care brand Georgiemane has this month announced a partnership with Priceline for its national bricks and mortar rollout.
The 12-month long exclusive deal will see the entire Georgiemane range of hair care products stocked in every one of Priceline’s 470-plus stores nationwide - a coup for founder George Papura whose customers now have a new way to buy the cruelty-free and vegan products.
Papura, who founded the Sydney-based hair care company in 2020 after selling his stake in laser hair removal brand Happy Skin Co, told Business News Australia that Georgiemane and Priceline were a perfect match.
“Once I got the meeting with Priceline, I knew we had secured the deal,” Papura said.
“Our demographics align directly with Priceline's.”
The founder, who won the 2022 Sydney Young Entrepreneur Retail & Services Award earlier this year and was a finalist in the 2022 Australian Young Entrepreneur Awards in November, said the partnership would rapidly expand the brand’s footprint.
It will also give Priceline’s customer-base, which includes more than 7 million members of the pharmacy chain’s loyalty program called ‘Sister Club’, access to the Georgiemane lineup which includes the brand’s hero product the ’10 minute hair mask’ - developed after testing more than 20 formulations across three major trials.
The range also includes Georgiemane’s hair growth spray, repair & hydrate shampoo, anti-frizz serum and scalp scrub which have all proved to be popular among the brand’s customer base and nearly 200,000 Instagram followers.
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“We’re a D2C (direct to consumer) e-commerce brand, and 99 per cent of our sales are through that channel, so having a retail partner like Priceline is going to expand our reach,” he said.
“It’s basically building bricks and mortar infrastructure for the brand, and will do so much for brand awareness and make it a lot more reputable.”
It follows a booming year for Georgiemane, which recently celebrated its first month of recording $2 million in turnover, is on track to more than double annual revenue by the end of the current financial year, and is selling more than 60,000 units per month across the entire range.
This growth has been supported by Georgiemane moving into a brand new warehouse after growing out of its 110 square metre spot in Sydney. The new facility, which is nearly five times the size of the old one, has also enabled the founder to grow out the team behind the brand too.
Expansion has been essential for Georgiemane to grow out its lineup Papura said, noting that if all of the products are used together they create a one-stop system of hair care essentials.
“The two latest editions - scalp scrub and anti-fizz serum - which were released at the end of 2021 have been received really well, and they complement the range too,” Papura said.
“We’ve got a range of five products at the moment and you can use them all in a system.”
That system is set to expand even further with two more unreleased products to hit shelves online just before Christmas. Though the founder is tight lipped about what they might entail, he’s as enthusiastic and hopeful about their success as he is the existing range.
Domestic growth should also assist in readying the company for Papura’s international expansion ambitions, which are still in the works.
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