VESTIGE VERDANT
195 200 € (195%)
of 100 000 - 300 000 € goal funded
200 € minimum investment
Quick Pitch
VESTIGE VERDANT is an Estonian based fast expanding international personal care brand. Today, our products are sold in Estonia, Germany, Austria, Great Britain and via direct online sales globally to Australia, New Zealand and USA. With the gross earnings of our products topping €800.000 since launching the brand in the final days of 2013.
The core strength of VESTIGE VERDANT is, on one hand, making superior skin care products and on the other (and more importantly) immersing these products in a coherent, strong and sustainably built brand. With this in mind, we are able to offer products that are organic and natural in essence and timeless, elegant and luxurious in image. We enjoy a sustainable 47% sales retention rate and a significantly above average positive social media sentiment. The reason for this is that our products meet and exceed our promises, values that we carry and expectations that our customers set upon us.
In Estonia (our domestic market), we are listed by all relevant retailers - both B&M and online. In Germany we are listed at douglas.de and flaconi.de in addition to a few boutique stores. In Great Britain we are listed at lovelula.com - a leading organic retailer. We are also listed with a key online retailer covering Scandinavia. Our product line-up is expanding, the products are developed by leading professionals and our retailer portfolio is growing monthly.
We are able to create products and a brand that is more compelling and desirable for the end consumer than most competing brands. We back this claim up with more than two dozen awards and media mentions by leading magazines in the industry.
Problem & Solution
PROBLEM
Regardless of the fact that the market is saturated with countless beauty products and brands, there is a deepening crisis in the beauty industry as a result of the following:
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A shift in generations: Millennials and Gen Z make up most of the target audience, they want new and fresh brands and they don’t care so much about the provenance of the old brands - this is reflected across industries and this trend is increasing yearly.
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Old brands struggle with creating relevant and fresh content in communication: Old brands are not as compelling to the relevant buyer as they used to be. Weak in strategic communication and image, increasingly dull and boring.
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The shift in generations is our strength: new generations view our brand and products as new and fresh, resulting in interest to try the products.
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Exponential growth in demand for quality: Relevant target audiences of today are exponentially more aware and thus demand more quality of the products they purchase.
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Increasingly more informed, a bigger focus on health and sustainability: Healthy, clean and sustainable products are gaining more market share because the demand is increasing. Relevant retailers are more conscious.
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A small number of brands with equal focus and value proposition for sustainability, health and timeless elegance: Today, most organic and natural brands are rustic in image and unable to satisfy the higher needs of the consumer - the need for modern elegance and desirability akin to the wealthy and upper-middle class.
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More demand for a better value proposition: More than half of the consumers sense a growing misalignment between price and value.
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A radical shift in consumer values: The thought paradigm of health, nature and naturalness, as well as luxury is changing.
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Organic and natural products often lack in quality: Many organic and natural products are not as organic and natural as they depict, use low-quality cheap ingredients or just lack in effect - have poor quality formulas, resulting in empty promises for the consumer.
SOLUTION
VESTIGE VERDANT is designed to solve all of the aforementioned problems:
- The shift in generations is our strength: new generations view our brand and products as new and fresh, resulting in interest to try the products.
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We are relevant today and looking into the future: We offer a sustainably compelling narrative and communication between our brand and the consumers.
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Top quality: We deliver consistent quality and transparent formulations.
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Emphasis on clean health and nature: We are focused on healthy, organic, sustainable and cruelty-free manufacturing.
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Brand defined by healthy living, modern and elegance: We successfully carry organic and healthy lifestyle in unison with timeless modern elegance.
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A clear and transparent relationship between the price and quality of our products.
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Affirmation to modern value systems: We affirm and develop the modern understanding of clean and healthy living, naturalness and desirability.
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Highest quality ingredients: Our products are made using only the best ingredients available, leading manufacturing solutions and specialists - designed to guarantee the best possible value proposition for the consumer.
Product/Service Details
VESTIGE VERDANT is an organic-luxury brand that creates 100% healthy, organic and natural beauty products, designed for the metropolitan environment where fast-paced living and pollution are a part of everyday life; where taking care of your skin is paramount to keeping it fresh, healthy and radiant.
Our aim is to build the VESTIGE VERDANT brand into a true international icon of natural timeless elegance. We believe that truly effective premium skin care products must have health benefits in addition to beauty benefits. This is why we do not use questionable ingredients, why we create our formulas to deliver the most desirable benefits and why we constantly monitor customer feedback and iterate our products accordingly.
We believe that the quintessence of luxury is to care for all the choices we make considering our health, beauty and well being. This is the reason why we use only the finest grade ingredients, work with the best minds in the industry and at the best facilities.
We take pride in our exceptional customer service, which is one of the reasons behind our high (47%) sales retention rate and our extremely high positive social sentiment index (57%).
Business model
Our core activity is creating superior skin care products, by using the best experts and manufacturers from all over the world and by immersing the products in a strong and sustainable brand. We sell our products via direct online sales (www.vestigeverdant.com), retailers (brick & Mortar and online) and through distributors.
VALUE CHAIN
The VESTIGE VERDANT value chain is similar to most companies in the industry except for one significant difference - we never stop developing our products, even already launched ones. We launch a product that is designed based on the latest data available regarding customer expectations and we do our best to anticipate their expectations for the future, we spend a lot of time fine tuning the formula and making sure the product is in alignment with our core values and after making the product public we monitor the customer feedback. If and when we identify an existing need our product could serve better, we iterate and manufacture the next batch to satisfy the most desired need. Perfection is not stagnant, it is dynamic and evolving in time due to beauty standards and prevailing relevant customer mindset and mentality. This results in a cyclical value chain instead of a conventional linear model.
Market
EY global market research on luxury beauty products values the global market at €47 billion with a prognosis of growth up to €57 billion until 2022.
The biggest market is Asia. This is why entering Japan in 2019 is of strategic importance for us.
In Europe, the biggest market of Natural and organic beauty products is Germany with €1,2 billion. In comparison, the rest of Europe amount up to €800 million. This is the key reason why Germany is a priority market for us.
North America remains a very relevant market. Where it is left behind in terms of monetary value, it maintains its importance for brand value. Being relevant in USA has an exponential impact on global brand value.
Traction & Accomplishments
- Leading position in our segment in our domestic market (Estonia)
- Listing at douglas.de and flaconi.de (the most relevant retailers in Germany today)
- Listing at lovelula.com (Great Britain)
- Listing at bangerhead.com (Sweden, Norway, Finland)
- Listing at noorbeautyshop.com (Italy)
- Agreement with a local distributor represented by Naoyuki Matsumura for entering Japan 1H 2019
- Confirmed listing in the GoldApple store chain in Russia
- VIII.Active online direct sales in USA, Australia and New Zealand
- More than two dozen awards
- Leading media endorsements on an international level (VOGUE, Cosmopolitan, Petra, GALA, Madame and others)
- GALA SPA AWARDS nomination
- Extremely positive social media sentiment (56,74%)
- XIII.TLK Fusion partnership with the aim of penetrating the US market
RESULTS
- Sales retention rate 47%+
- Conversion Rate higher than 3%
- More than €800.000 worth of products sold in less than 4 years
- Increasing sales
- Growing retailer portfolio
- AA credit rating by Bisnode rating agency
How We’re Different
Most skin care brands by and large fall into one of two categories - either the “pharmaceutical” category, where the focus is solely on the product and technical solution but the effect and branding are shallow OR the “fashion brand” category, whose core business is fashion, clothes, accessories and who also make skin care and beauty products. This ultimately leads to a wide and diversified brand, but an insignificant product.
Our concept is to tie these two seemingly apart worlds together. The ingredients, method of production and overall effectiveness of our products is superior to that of products at a higher price range let alone of the same price range yet our brand delivers a clearer, more concise, interesting and compelling narrative and visual communication - this is reflected in the packages we use, design we implement and the overall style of our advertising.
Proof of the success and sustainability of our concept is reflected in the awards we have received and keep on receiving, customer/influencer/blogger feedback, sales retention rate and positive social sentiment.
VESTIGE VERDANT delivers premium quality products to customers who value top tier quality at a significantly more attractive price point than that of the competition with equally desirable brand/products.
Uses of Funds & Timeline
The capital we aim to raise will provide us with the opportunity to engage in larger volumes of marketing and advertising with the aim of reaching more customers and to elevate stock volumes to service the growing demand.
We have received enough reassurance about the relevance and interest of the brand in the mind of the consumer as well as to the effectiveness and superior quality of the products we offer.
We are ready to take the brand and the business to the next level.
Taking VESTIGE VERDANT to the next level entails the following activities:
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Marketing support for relevant retailers (Douglas, Flaconi, Lovelula, Bangerhead) with the aim of elevating revenue speed and volumes. Heavy focus on Douglas, because we aim to be in all of their 1900 stores across Europe by 2022.
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Amplifying marketing activities in our own channels with the aim of increasing brand exposure, strengthening top of mind and as a result increasing revenues.
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Growing and developing the brand narrative and reach with more advertising and quality content.
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Key personnel hires (international sales experts and marketing specialists). Increasing stock volume to service the growing demand.
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Starting the project of diversifying VESTIGE VERDANT into the organic parfum industry. Launching US sales and starting market penetration.
Sources of funds
The capital needed to finance the next stage of VESTIGE VERDANT is €500.000. We plan to finance it from sales revenue and raising capital from investors.
ALLOCATION
27% - increasing stock volumes
33% - increasing marketing volume
33% - key personnel hires
7% - developing organic parfum prototypes
TIMEFRAME
- Market Activation in Germany 2H 2019
- Market Activation in Japan 2H 2019
- Market entry Russia 1H 2019
- Market Activation in Great Britain 1H 2019
- Relevant sales in Italy 2H 2019 Organic Parfum prototypes 2H 2019
We exist in a dynamic market, therefore it is not sensible to look beyond 2019 for immediate goals. Long-term goals are presented in the business plan document.
Obligations to Investors, Profit Distribution
GROWING VALUE
The current value of VESTIGE VERDANT is €1 500 000. We aim to grow 1400% in value in the next 5 years. We have an agreed timeline in place (2023-24) with an international conglomerate for a merger or acquisition.
DIVIDENDS
We will start paying dividends in 2022 to all investors respectively to their shares. Up to 50% of profit will be paid as dividends.
RESULT/OUTCOME OF YOUR INVESTMENT
Capital raised will increase sales revenues in terms of volume and speed on all markets and channels we operate in. It will enable us to be more effective in sales (increasing retailer portfolio on all markets and enter new ones); increase marketing and sales volumes B2C via direct online sales, widen our product line-up in skin care and develop top-tier organic parfums.
Considering that we already have a well-performing brand, proven effective and awarded products and a very good existing distribution network alongside with agreements to enter new and very relevant markets we need capital for three fundamental purposes:
- Increase stock volumes
- Key personnel hires (marketing and sales positions)
- Increase marketing volumes (to increase sales revenue and social media presence and brand exposure globally)
The outcome of executing the next stage of development is to have at least €5 million in sales revenue by 2023 and a significantly elevated brand value.
Risks and Mitigation
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Recession or severe economic downturn - the beauty industry has historically been inert to recessions. Considering our value proposition, we are confident that we would gain customers who previously used more expensive products. In a shifting economic environment, people tend to be more focused on getting better value for money, which VESTIGE VERDANT is more than able to deliver.
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Problems with sourcing ingredients - We have had that issue in 2016 and as a result we now have 3 partnering companies that are able to provide us with the ingredients needed. The likelihood of all 3 falling off is unlikely.
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Faulty packaging, issues with the product - Over the course of our years on the market, we have had issues with packaging. We have resolved these issues with open, honest and fast communication with our customers and have replaced the faulty products immediately. This has in our experience translated into a higher sales retention rate, more satisfied customers and as a result higher value customers (since they purchase not only for themselves but also for gifts to others).
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Distributor goes insolvent - We had a distributor for Germany in 2016 who went insolvent 6 months into the cooperation. As we are heavily focused on building our direct online sales as well, we will always be able to have a source of income that meets our needs for operating and provide us with enough capital to have the time to recover from such events.
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Drastically decreasing sales - As we shifted our focus from domestic to international and as we reinvented the brand and had next to no marketing budget, we faced this issue in 2016 to 2017. By keeping a close eye on CGS and maintaining sensible operating costs as well as outsourcing necessary services, we are able navigate even the most difficult circumstances while maintaining the forward momentum of the brand.