Australian natural deodorant brand KIND-LY launches in 450+ Chemist Warehouse stores in Australia

A small business in Melbourne is eyeing a $1 million pay day after signing a huge deal with Chemist Warehouse to sell their products.

An Aussie small business based in Melbourne selling natural deodorant products has hit the big time with a launch nationwide into more than 450 Chemist Warehouse stores despite being in stage 4 lockdown at the time of signing the deal.

KIND-LY founder and CEO Lisa Raciti says her business has turned over $450,000 in the past financial year and is on track to exceed $1 million in annual turnover after signing the partnership with the major retailer.

“As brand awareness increases with consumers we anticipate that future years will see even bigger growth, as more customers discover us and our repeat customer base expands,” she revealed to news.com.au.

The “one-woman business” started when Lisa saw a gap in the Australian market for a natural deodorant that “actually worked” and appealed to a mainstream consumer.

“My goal when starting KIND-LY was to take natural deodorant mainstream and make natural the new normal,” she added.

She added that it “also ticked all the boxes of being Australian made and owned, vegan, cruelty-free and made from only natural and organic ingredients”.

KIND-LY founder and CEO Lisa Raciti launched the brand when she saw a gap in the market.

Only a year and a half after she launched the brand in May 2018, Chemist Warehouse approached Lisa with a nationwide deal.

“As far as deals go, the Chemist Warehouse team has been a wonderful retail partner to deal with and has been incredibly supportive of us as a small business scaling up and believing in our products and helping us to grow,” Lisa said.

Despite the challenging retail climate amid the pandemic, product sales have been strong in Chemist Warehouse, with the retailer being one of the few permitted businesses deemed essential and allowed to remain open throughout the lockdown.

“The lockdown in Melbourne was a challenging time for all small businesses and many of our independent boutique stockists were severally impacted with the closures,” Lisa told news.com.au.

“We hadn’t planned on launching into Chemist Warehouse in the midst of a global pandemic when Melbourne was in stage 4 lockdown, but if 2020 has taught us anything, it is that you have to adapt and keep moving,” she said.

“There will never be the perfect time or conditions, so just make the most of what you have available at the time.”

The Melbourne brand launched nationwide into 450+ Chemist Warehouse stores during stage 4 lockdown.

While the KIND-LY online store was trading as normal during the lockdown, Lisa saw a spike in demand from customers looking to support small business and seeking out Australian made and owned products.

“We were fortunate enough to see an uptick in online orders during lockdown as more people shopped online,” Lisa said. “We’ve also seen growing demand from customers who are seeking out Australian made and Australian owned products.”

Running a small business is not without its challenges, and Lisa admits that cash flow, especially in the beginning, was one of the major roadbumps the business faced.

“Any product-based business requires significant money upfront to fund manufacturing and it becomes a continuous cycle of any money made, goes straight back into the business to manufacture more products and cover all the other expenses,” Lisa explained.

The other major challenge is brand awareness. “For small brands it’s incredible difficult and expensive to build brand awareness without major and continuous spending on advertising and promotion,” she explained.

The brand has 14,000 followers on Instagram.

The brand was launched at a trade show which was “extremely well received”.

“We picked up a distributor and also a number of independent stockists on the same day,” Lisa said. “This was really the first test of the market, as up until this point I hadn’t shared any details about the products with anyone.”

Lisa adds that she had “no experience in the industry”.

“I simply trusted my gut on what I as a consumer wanted and that I couldn’t find in stores and the belief that just because a product is natural and organic, doesn’t mean it has to be boring,” she said.

KIND-LY started as and remains a “one-woman business”.

“I currently handle all aspects of the business from our online store order fulfilment, wholesale business, marketing, promotion, social media, customer service and new product development,” Lisa said.

Lisa has ensured that her products remain natural, vegan and cruelty-free, while appealing to the everyday buyer.

“The majority of natural deodorants tend to be a thick paste format that come in a jar, and require you to dig your fingers in and smear onto your armpits to apply. As a consumer, this didn’t appeal to me,” Lisa explained.

The Armpit Detox is similar to a face charcoal mud mask but goes on your armpits.

“I simply wanted a natural deodorant that was an easy to use liquid roll-on formulation and as close to what I was used to using, but just without all the nasties,” she added.

“I also wanted something fun and friendly that I could look forward to applying each day, just as we do for every other beauty product in our routine.”

The brand has won several awards, including the best natural deodorant category at the Beauty Shortlist Mama & Baby Awards two years in a row in 2020 and 2019, as well as this year’s Editor’s Choice award.

Lisa has been recognised by Wellbeing magazine’s Be-YOU-T award for best in odour care this year, and was highly commended in Nature & Health magazine’s Natural Beauty Awards last year.

KThe products are all natural and vegan.

“I’d always hoped that what I created would also resonate and be accepted by a broader market,” Lisa said.

“It’s been incredibly satisfying and also proud to see how far the brand has come in a short space of time and that so many thousands, upon thousands of people are now wearing KIND-LY deodorant.”

The next 12 months is all about increasing brand awareness within Australia and “converting as many people as possible over to natural deodorant” as well as gradually adding new products to the KIND-LY range.

The brand’s latest product is The Armpit Detox, an “armpit mask” similar to a face charcoal mud mask, containing activated charcoal, Australian bentonite clay, colloidal silver and other all-natural ingredients.