For ET Browne UK and Europe managing director Ryan Woor, the answer to how a business of its size has reached more than £35m is partly knowing what not to do.

“We are a beauty company. We’re a heritage beauty company. We’ve been around for a very long time, and we are so passionate about what we do for our consumer. But logistics isn’t what we do,” he said.

“So we surround ourselves with the best people.”

ET Browne UK has around 18 employees, and its products are manufactured by its family-owned US parent before being shipped to Britain. Woor said the UK team focuses on sales, marketing, finance and its own logistics and ordering, leaving warehousing and distribution to Europa.

However, the scale of the operation is considerably larger than the headcount might suggest. The business is currently receiving about seven containers of Palmer’s products a week, which Woor described as its maximum “at the moment”, with scope to increase further.

Once the products arrive, they have to be stored, picked, packed and sent on to some of Britain’s biggest retailers. The lotion brand is sold through Boots, Tesco, Superdrug and Sainsbury’s, as well as through wholesalers and retail customers in markets including Germany, Poland and the Netherlands.

The business handles between five and ten consignments a day, ranging from a single pallet to a full trailer. Dionne Redpath, chief operating officer at Europa Warehouse, said the relationship has developed to the point where the two organisations effectively operate as one team.

“Almost you can’t really distinguish between where does Europa start and where does E.T. Browne follow on,” she said.

“The two teams are in contact throughout the day, with ET Browne receiving management information twice daily on some parts of the operation.

Redpath said that the close working relationship has also helped the companies keep stock, as, while ET Browne’s sales have doubled over 15 years, its stockholding has actually fallen.

“For me that is the acid test of a really successful supply chain management programme,” she said, adding holding large quantities of stock costs money and takes up warehouse space, so brand instead should aim instead is to get products into the warehouse, picked and dispatched without leaving them sitting on shelves.

“Holding huge amounts of stock is quite an expensive hobby,” Redpath said.

The figures from Palmer’s wider US operation suggest the same focus on inventory has had a financial benefit. In 2024, ET Browne Drug Co said its inventory had fallen 22 per cent, while profits increased 113 per cent on 7 per cent revenue growth.

When a new product takes off

The biggest recent test has been Tahitian Vanilla, a range that has brought Palmer’s into contact with a younger customer.

The brand has traditionally been closely associated with Cocoa Butter Formula. Woor described the core range as having “almost a cult following”, while joking that its distinctive smell can be “a bit like Marmite”. But the company is trying to take that heritage into new parts of the beauty market.

“We’ve stayed true to ourselves in that we’ve stayed true to the values of the business, but we’ve moved into new areas,” Woor said.

Tahitian Vanilla was one such move. The product had already been launched in the US, giving the UK business some indication of how it might perform. Even so, the British launch exceeded expectations.

“This one really, really caught us by surprise,” Woor said. The range has become Palmer’s fastest-growing product by both value and units sold. In some retailers, Woor said, it has come close to selling out.

That put the supply chain under pressure at exactly the moment the marketing campaign was generating interest.

“There’s been a lot of stress on that, a lot of stress testing, I suppose, on our systems and processes to get the stock to the right place at the right time,” he said.

The shift in customer is also important Woor said. Palmer’s is not abandoning the consumers who have bought its cocoa butter products for years. Instead, it is using new fragrances and product categories to bring in consumers who may never have considered the brand before.

Woor said the company is now engaging with millennials and Generation Z through its newer products.Vanilla, he believes, has staying power because it works across body creams, oils and haircare and has a lighter fragrance than the brand’s traditional cocoa butter scent.

“It’s a wonderful light fragrance,” he said. “It’s great for summer, great for winter.”

The supply chain will have to keep pace. Woor said five new products are planned for next year, although he would not reveal what they are.

Expanding into Europe

ET Browne already has customers in several European countries, but Woor said its footprint there remains relatively small and that expansion is expected to be “relatively fast”.

For Europa, that means planning well before the products arrive. Redpath said the teams need to know about expected sales, new customers, promotions and product launches so that warehouse space and labour can be planned in advance.

A shipment heading to Germany, for example, may have different delivery terms, transit times and fulfilment requirements from another German customer.

“Ultimately, that takes quite an enormous amount of planning,” Redpath said.

Brexit has added another layer. Since January 1, 2021, goods moving between Britain and the EU have been subject to customs formalities, while the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement provides zero tariffs and zero quotas only where the relevant rules of origin are met.

After Brexit, Britain dropped the 2009 EU Cosmetics Regulation, and introduced its own regime for Great Britain, including a UK cosmetics notification system and UK Responsible Person requirements. These changes began taking effect from January 1, 2021.

The EU also introduced its General Product Safety Regulation, Regulation 2023/988, which has applied since December 13, 2024. It is designed to strengthen the wider EU product-safety framework and includes requirements around the responsibilities of businesses in the supply chain.

However, policy makers say cosmetics remain principally governed by their specific cosmetics legislation, so the GPSR should not be presented as replacing the Cosmetics Regulation.

For Redpath, the answer has been to take much of that complexity away from ET Browne.

“Working with an expert makes that so much simpler to manage,” she said. “So you don’t have to worry about it because your partner does the heavy lifting.”

Europa has invested in systems and Brexit services, while its warehouse team works with its road freight operation and other partners involved in getting products from the US into the hands of European customers.

The financial scale of that partner is significant. Europa Worldwide Group’s latest filed accounts, for 2024, show turnover of £263.3m and pre-tax profit of £2.8m, with 1,149 employees. The group currently describes its annual turnover as more than £300m.

Yet Redpath said the Palmer’s operation at Dartford itself is deliberately small.

“There is a contract manager, you have the customer service head of customer service is involved from time to time,” she said. “But actually the operational team is a very, very small tight-knit team of people who have a great deal of expertise in handling E.T. Browne’s products.”

Looking ahead, both executives said that this arrangement is likely to matter more, rather than less, as Palmer’s grows.

Woor said communication between the two businesses will be critical because demand can change quickly. The company wants to broaden its product range and increase its presence in Europe, but it does not want logistics to stand in the way.

As Woor puts it: “We are about doing things properly, and I know with Europa behind us, we can do that.”

Redpath added: “We’re proud to be supporting ET Browne as it continues to expand, strengthen its retail distribution and bring Palmer’s products to more consumers across the UK and Europe.”