Cosmetics manufacturer set to create jobs after landing funding
Nottinghamshire-based manufacturer and retailer of natural cosmetics, All Good Skincare, trading as Pit Putty, has created new jobs thanks to a £50,000 investment.
The company secured the finance from First Enterprise – Enterprise Loans through the Community Investment Enterprise Fund (CIEF), supported by the Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS).
Pit Putty, founded by husband-and-wife team, Luke and Laura Baldwin, began business heavily reliant on wholesale orders from brick-and-mortar retailers – many of whom did not offer online order facilities. As well as creating new jobs locally, the cash will be used to strengthen the company’s supply chain and invest in marketing.
Despite the initial slump in orders during the pandemic, Pit Putty set its focus on generating more online sales within the UK market. This resulted in an increase of 60% in sales within the UK.
Luke Baldwin, director of All Good Skincare, said: “We believe that skincare should be open and transparent. We are inspired by the power of natural plants and minerals and believe in having passion for what we do, bringing it into every single product we create and every interaction we have. As a company we were consistently fulfilling on our mission, delighting our customers and growing; and then Covid-19 hit. Our business model was tailored towards serving the B2B market, selling directly to retail stores and so with the reduction in high street footfall, as a company we had to adjust our strategy quite significantly.
“Our products were in demand, and we were planning a launch of a new and highly anticipated new product range, but we needed funding to finance the investment in our team, marketing and stock acquisition, to make new growth strategy a reality. At a time when we needed a bit of support to get back on track, First Enterprise were super-responsive and were able to help. Our account manager, Stefan, clearly had a wealth of experience in so many different industries and understood our requirements and abilities as a business intuitively. He was able to lead us through the application effectively and even provided valuable market insights from his own experience. We were granted a loan quickly, are now able implement our new growth strategy and look forward to a very exciting 2022.”
Alastair Davis, CEO of Social Investment Scotland said: “Although the Covid-19 pandemic has presented us with huge challenges, it has also brought opportunities for businesses to innovate. We wish Luke and Laura every success for this next stage of growth.”
Stefan Nycz, investment manager at First Enterprise – Enterprise Loans, added:“It was an absolute pleasure to work with Luke and Laura who have such a great energy which they fuel their business ambitions with. Great products, great people and I wish them all the best in all their endeavours.”
